Marco's Moving Castle
by AuraBlackWolf
Summary: Ace had been normal once. True he had a nutter for a younger brother who loved Meat, a crazed grandfather who trained them relentlessly and a shop where they lived and worked. Then Ace insulted someone he shouldn't have, though to be fair the moron totally deserved it. Now Ace is aged, and he is a servant of a wizard, what else could go wrong?


Marco's Moving Castle

Ace gave a muffled shout as the departing customer slammed the front door closed, catching his hand in the process.

"Son of a-!"

He could hear his brother laughing in the background, the little shit found this funny.

"Oi Luffy you better not be slacking back there! You know what Gramps would do to you if he saw you weren't working."

Luffy's squeak was loud enough that Ace couldn't help but laugh in sarcastic delight, it was always entertaining whenever Ace got the chance to use the Will-of-Gramps on his chibi of a brother.

"No fair Ace! You're the one who just ran out a customer." Luffy pouted as he went back to polishing the brass and silver telescopes that lined the shelves behind the counter.

"Well he was being unreasonable." Ace embarrassingly scratched his shaggy black head, making an even bigger mess of his shoulder length hair. He knew that he needed a haircut before it grew too long but he just didn't care, besides it was one more thing that pissed his grandfather off so he didn't mind the length.

Ace ignored his brother's eye roll because while Ace knew he had a bit of a temper he knew he was in the right this time around.

The customer _had_ been unreasonable, from the get-go.

Ace's family, which consisted of himself, his younger brother and their grandfather, owned a small store front in a fairly large town. Ace could barely remember a time that they hadn't been living and working in the store. Maybe when Luffy was a baby they'd lived somewhere else but those memories were hazy at best.

Their store was small but well known to the locals so they had a fair customer base, even with the bigger and more modernized businesses that were peppered around town fighting over the right of sells.

They mostly catered to sailors…or well travelers in general, if Ace wanted to be honest. Their Gramps, Garp to everyone else, had once been a sailor in his younger years, a navy officer. Although both Ace and Luffy suspected that he'd been a pirate at one point or another. Their finance situation was…better than some store owners out there that relied on their income from selling wares.

Their modest shop sold maps of the surrounding sea that enclosed the north side of the town as well as maps of the nearby wilderness that covered the east and south sides. Then there was the west which was filled with open fields and roads that went towards the Capital, which was this country's capital and easily ten times bigger than their small port town.

The Capital wasn't actually the cities named, but Ace hadn't ever heard what its true name was and everyone else liked to just call it the Capital since that was where this country's King and military resided, not to mention it was the largest city in the country. It was less than a day's ride away, if you were running the horse ragged the whole way and didn't take any breaks.

Ace had never been there but he'd heard about it from a few of his neighborhood friends who had visited. Apparently it was completely modernized and changed rapidly to include any new inventions that were created or discoveries that were found. It never stayed the same for more than a year. Buildings changed as well as transportation, clothing, food, etc.

Ace looked around their tiny store and snorted at the emptiness of the shop. The store " D's " hadn't changed even once in Ace's memory, at least nothing major, they had to replace a chair or some shelves a few times. Mostly because Ace and Luffy had broken it in one of their brotherly scuffles but that was all. There was nothing _modern_ in their shop and Ace found that it was what gave their little shop its charm.

Modernization…that had actually been what Ace and that customer had been arguing over.

They apparently failed to carry the latest in teno-bables that the customer just had to have. All the equipment they sold worked of course and were reliable…they were just older then Ace was.

So the uppity customer who clearly had more money than brains demanded to speak to the manager about their horrendous hoard of crap.

Ace…hadn't taken that very well, he was proud of that hoard of crap thank you very much.

Not to mention that Gramps would have eaten this guy for breakfast. If there was anyone who was more defensive of the shop then Ace or Luffy it was their Gramps.

Ace decided to save everyone the amount of bloodshed that would have to be mopped up by tell the not-customer as politely as he could through clenched teeth that Garp was out and if the not-customer had any grievances to please address them to Ace.

The not-customer had spittle flying from his face as he began to complain loudly and with slurred wording about his displeasure of " D's ". Ace had been…cautioned many a time by his Grandfather to control his temper. He'd ran out more than a few not locals from the shop before for this very reason. Not to mention the amount of bar fights and brawls he liked to indulge in ever since he'd entered puberty. The property damage alone tend to run a little high.

Even higher when Luffy decided to tag along and join in on the fun.

So Ace decided to practice not beating the stupid people today, he would remain calm and collected throughout this idiot's trash talk. He blocked it out as he stood still in front of not-customer, barely listening in. As long as he ignored the insults he wouldn't lose his temper.

When not-customer had gotten to the point about trash talking Luffy, who had been dozing on the counter top with a snot bubble floating around his face Ace decided he'd had enough.

Ace had then preceded to trash the guy. Physically of course, when Ace got mad he tend to leave the witty remarks behind. That was only reserved for true enemies anyway. Bantering with this fool would be a waste of his time and breath.

The noise had awoken Luffy of course, who took a few moments to blink and stretch the kinks out of his neck and arms.

"Oi Ace! Gramps won't be happy with you if he sees you fighting in the shop again!"

That had stopped Ace cold, with his fist raised above him he looked down at the bloody face of not-customer.

"Whoops." Ace let him go and pulled him up to his feet. "Well it's not all bad, I'm pretty sure that nose can be set to right if you see a doctor in the next few hours. Terribly sorry we don't carry your do-hicky but I'm sure you can find it in the Capitol. Have a good day then." Ace had then precede to push the man towards the door, when at the last second the guy seemed to finally wake from his fear induced trance and slam the door behind him. It was just Ace's luck that his hand had been on the door frame and was caught in the slam.

After Luffy's giggling fit, in which Ace then preceded to noggle him until sparks began to fly from the friction, things calmed down.

"Ace, when is Gramps coming home?" Luffy asked. He was leaning against the counter while tilting the stool he was sitting on backwards. Ace had watched him do that many a time and many a time Luffy had fallen with his face planted on the ground.

Endlessly amusing and endlessly stupid.

That was kind of his brother for him, Luffy was sweet and had a heart of a golden lion but in the brains department…well let's put it this way.

_Flashback~_

A few years ago when a young girl, who had been new to the neighborhood and could then be excused for not knowing about the D brothers beforehand, had found it in her tiny head to try to get Luffy to court her things had…gone slightly out of hand.

The girl, who no one can remember the name of, had come to the shop every day for a week to talk, or hopelessly flirt, with Luffy.

It had been fairly innocent at the beginning, the girl hadn't really noticed that Luffy didn't flirt back and barely gave her any attention when he learned that she wasn't going to buy anything in the shop. She wasn't very interesting either, being kind of flighty and liked to whine about other people. Although even Ace could admit that she would grow into quite the looker when she grew up.

Then- it had happened. Some would say that it was inevitable. Ace just groaned and buried his head in his hands to hide from the shame whenever the subject was brought up.

It was a hot afternoon on a sunny day and both of the D brothers had been on their lunch break, which had consisted of several good pieces of meat and bread. Ace of course was the only one to really enjoy the rich, fluffy baked goodie as Luffy devoured the stack of meat in true D style.

Messily and wholly.

Flirty girl had walked in at that time, ignoring the 'at lunch will be back when done' sign on the door. Ace had no idea what had been going through the girl's mind when she saw them, but whatever it had been it probably hadn't been nice because as soon as she invaded the sacred space, i.e. behind the counter, she had then preceded to yank the piece of meat from Luffy's hand all the while screaming about "manners" and "decor" and "no husband of hers was going to disgrace her" and blah blah blah.

Luffy hadn't taken having his meat stolen very well, and by that Ace meant that his little brother had gone bat shit crazy.

Only a selected few were allowed to fight over meat with Luffy and even then both parties got a little bloody by the end. Ace and their Gramps were two such people, and then there was Luffy's best friend Usopp. They were the only ones who had tried and sometimes succeed in taking meat out of Luffy's reach and living to tell the tale afterwards.

This girl was not on that list, she wasn't even a friend of the family or anything. Just some annoyance that gave the occasional lark whenever Ace saw her try and fail to win Luffy's affection.

Now it took all of Ace's strength to hold Luffy back from tearing a new one in the girl, who still didn't realize the danger she was in as she waved the meat around in her hand and continued to rant about stupid and unimportant things. Ace was half tempted to let his brother go but he really didn't want to deal with the law suit that would be sure to follow.

As luck would have it their grandfather finally showed up from who knows where and took the situation into his own hands. By knocking Luffy out and picking up the girl and throwing her out all the while bellowing about restraining orders.

Ace got to eat all the meat that day, since Luffy was out like a light and Grap decided to ghost off again.

So in conclusion…Ace's little brother's love for meat was as true as any fairy tale pairing.

_End Flashback~_

"Gramps should be home sometime today pipsqueak." Ace smirked, ignoring Luffy's annoyed whine at the nickname.

Luffy huffed and looked at the clock on the wall, it was old and missing more than a few numbers on it but it worked enough for them to get a good idea of what time it was at least.

"Hey Ace! It's 2 o'clock already, can I go see Usopp and the others?"

Ace sighed, "Luffy you've only been working for four hours today." He looked around the shop and noticed how dead it was. The not-customer had been the only one to come in today and yesterday they hadn't had anyone at all. It was kind of suspicious since even on slow days there tend to be a few regulars who would come in to gossip and check on the boys since their Gramps liked to disappear at odd times for days on end.

Shrugging and mind made up on the matter Ace turned back to Luffy.

"If I let you get off early today will you promise to go straight to Usopp? No diddle dallying, not today. I've got a bad feeling and I'd rather not have to save your scrawny butt when Usopp can save it for me. Also don't tell Gramps I let you go early."

Ignoring his brother's cheers and half-hearted promises Ace walked around the shop to make sure everything was closed up tightly and locked up.

Making sure his shirt wasn't inside out and his suspenders were clipped on correctly he walked out of the shop, letting Luffy squeeze by him, his straw hat planted firmly on his head and his red vest flapping open as was Luffy's custom. Sometimes Ace wanted to put Luffy in his own suspenders and a proper shirt, then he thought of the consequences of such actions and shuddered in only half fake horror.

"Remember Luffy! Straight to Usopp!" Ace called out after his brother who was already halfway down the street.

"Yea promise!" Luffy called back and headed towards his hideout were his friends were sure to be waiting for him.

Ace smiled after Luffy, his brother was young but Ace doubted his personality or energy would change the older he got. At only fourteen years of age Luffy was the same ball of energy that he'd been at age five.

Ace exhaled deeply as he tilted his head back and stared up at the blue sky, unfortunately Ace couldn't say the same about himself. Ace had once been as energetic as Luffy but as time passed and certain events happened…Ace found he lost the fire that had once made him who he'd been.

Nowadays Ace was mostly subdued, the only time he showed even a little bit of fire was when someone insulted Luffy or Ace got drunk enough to get into a brawl at the local pubs, and even then it was because someone said something rude about his family or shop. Shaking his head to dislodge his depressing thoughts and the unwanted memories that tried to creep up on him Ace looked around as he walked down the cobblestoned street. Noticing that no one was out and about, when usually the streets were filled with people at this time, it was a work day after all. Or maybe it was a holiday and Ace simply forgot?

It didn't take Ace very long to notice the faint sounds of cheering and shouting coming from the higher class district several blocks away.

Deciding to investigate, since that was the whole reason he decided to take off work and face his grandfather's wrath if he ever found out, Ace hurried along towards the noise.

A loud uproar startled him and Ace looked up, noticing a fair sized metal airplane zoom by above him, flying a little too low to be safe. Several others followed behind that one and Ace finally took note of the banners that streaked behind the tail end.

They looked to be the colors of the capital Capitol's royal family…seriously what holiday was this?

Ace turned a corner and suddenly he was swarmed amongst bodies. A large crowd of people lined the streets dressed in their best holiday clothes. They were all staring at the wide street in front of them were a parade was passing by.

Ace turned to a gentleman next to him dressed similarly as the people around him, pale pastel colors and frilly lace. Ace tried to keep the disgust from his face as he tried to get the man's attention.

"Excuse me but what's going on?" Ace asked as politely as he could. He wanted answers and the aggravating the person wouldn't help him get them.

It took the man a moment's pause to realize he was being addressed and turned to Ace and didn't even bother to try to hide his disgust, as Ace politely had. Point for Ace, zero for asshole snob.

"Are you stupid? This is the royal parade that the King requested for the departing soldiers and military force. Even members of the Court are attending."

Ace ignored the man's unpleasant tone and face as he hummed in contemplation. A parade as big as this would explain why the shop and surrounding streets were empty.

"If this is a royal parade why isn't it being held at the Capitol? I would think that our town would be beneath their notice."

"Now see here!" The man shouted, gaining more than a few curious and annoyed glances from nearby bystanders who wanted to enjoy the event in peace. "Our town has offered the most soldiers for this most glorious war in the name of the King! Of course they would shower their gratitude to us by-"

"By showering us with glitter and confetti, not to mention they do this on a work day so all us hard working folk have to close shop to watch a bunch of people dressed like clowns walk down the street. I get it, we send people to potentially die and they dazzle us by sparkles."

The man looked like he was about to start foaming at the mouth as his face turned an interesting shade of purple.

Ace dismissed him and turned to another person standing nearby.

"What war is he talking about?"

This time an older lady answered, although judging by the look in her eye she was close to dismissing him entirely, this was why Ace hated to come to the higher districts, snot-nose people the lot of them.

"The war between us and the neighboring country of Goa. Where have you been living these past few months?"

"Apparently underneath a rock." Ace mumbled, while trying to remember if he'd heard anything about this war. He could vaguely remember a few customers talking amongst themselves and to their Gramps about some missing royal from another country but he hadn't paid too much attention to it…although now that he thought about it he'd noticed that several of the boys from the neighborhood had gone missing…had they been recruited for this war?

"Yes well, apparently some prince of Goa went missing when he got sent here as an embassy or some other such nonsense. If you want my option this war is the best thing to happen to us. Goa deserves to be taken down a peg or two."

"Well no one asked you." Ace sneered at her and ignored her irate huff as he turned back around to look over the parade. He could see now that a few of the marching soldiers looked familiar, no one he really knew personally but young men he'd seen on the streets or the shops around town.

"Why aren't you over there?" It seemed the man Ace had previously talked to had decided to add his two cents in, still miffed about Ace's comments. "You're of age, you should be honored to serve your kingdom."

Ace didn't bother turning around to address him, "If I didn't even know there was a war going on how the hell would I have become a soldier in it?"

He turned back around, deciding he'd seen enough and walked away, pushing through the crowd to go back the way he came, ignoring the shouts of the offended man.

Ace disregarded the man's cursing and finally found himself out of the jumble of bodies to an empty side street.

As he walked down the shadowed and narrow alleyway he lifted his hand to push his bangs away from his eyes.

Why hadn't he been recruited? He was of legal age, Twenty was definitely old enough to serve as a soldier, not that Ace wasn't grateful that he'd managed to avoid such a scenario. He didn't like the idea of war and even if he didn't have the full scale of information about it this war seemed kind of false.

Why would Goa be at war with them? Sure they had a prince missing but why did they think that Ace's country had something to do with it? Aren't princes fully escorted from one place to another? If he got lost then that's Goa's fault for not giving him a better detail of soldiers and escorts.

There must be some other reason to go to war, no one was that stupid and careless with lives, or at least Ace desperately hoped not, to have someone that callous in charge of all the citizens of this country was bone chilling.

Ace was so deep in thought he failed to notice he was being followed until his wrist was suddenly grabbed from behind.

"Wha-?!" Ace shouted before he was impolitely hushed.

"Shhh, I'm sorry about this but this alleyway isn't safe right now. I'm afraid I've got to escort you out."

Whoever had spoken had done so with his mouth to Ace's ear, leaving it to tingle and overheat at the warmth brush of breath.

Ace would have pulled back and cold cocked the bastard but fortunately for the mysterious stranger Ace caught a glimpse of why this alleyway was unsafe.

Monsters. The alleyway had somehow become filled with monsters.

Ace swore and let the stranger drag him for a second before his legs got steady below him and he was matching the stranger step for step.

"Who the fuck-?" Ace whispered furiously as their pursuers chased after them. Ace hadn't gotten too good a look at them but from what he could see they looked like demented puppets, malformed and with wide cracked smiles and no eyes. Very creepy and would no doubt be staring in Ace's nightmares for a while.

"No time for questions or answers, just run."

Ace took two seconds to scowl at the man, because now that his mind wasn't solely focused on the creatures behind him he could finally take stock at the stranger, who most definitely was a man.

A beautiful…no…a gorgeous man. Wild black hair framed a wide exotic face with eyes that were bluer then the sea. He was wearing some kind of exotic wear, big bellowing pants and a sash wrapped around his waist and His coat flowed behind him in the wind that their escape created, open and showing off a very nice pair of abs.

Ace gaped in shock and almost slowed down but one glare from the man had him sprinting faster.

"We can't lose them like this!" Ace called out, he was getting a terrible stitch in his side not to mention that the alleyway could end at any minute and their choices were either a street filled with innocent people or a dead end. Neither of those things were something that Ace could live with, literally.

"Teh." The man tsked then reached out and firmly grabbed around Ace's waist securing him firmly against himself.

"Oi oi! Hands!"

"Shut it kid!" And suddenly they were lifted upwards. Ace shouted wordlessly as they flew up and over the roof tops, leaving the creepy dolls behind to bunch up into a mass of ugly.

"Oh you did not!" Ace shouted in his ear, anger filling his belly and making him feel hotter than he had in a long time. It was like a fire had been lit inside of him and all he really wanted right now was to get in a really good fight, be it either with fists or words.

The man just grunted and gripped harder, it was only then that it really hit Ace that he was being held up by a single guy as the flew through the air.

"Oh fuck!" Ace whimpered and reached around so his hands were clutching the stranger's jacket.

"Finally realized huh?" Came the lazy reply and Ace didn't even have the will to glare as he was too afraid to open his eyes. "Hey now it's okay. Look open your eyes."

"Yeaaa…no." Ace grunted out.

"No really, everything's okay." The man's voice had gotten softer, gentler and Ace couldn't help but respond to the tone. Slowly he began to open his eyes until he could fully appreciate the sights around him.

"Oh." Ace breathe the word out quietly.

The man chuckled, "Yes, oh."

Ace didn't even have it in him to be offended since he was too busy staring at the horizon around them.

They were high up the air, even farther up then the buildings. Ace looked down and gulped, the people on the ground looked small, like ant-ish small.

Still…he looked around and calmed down. Truthfully Ace felt weightless, like he'd been flying his whole life and gravity had no meaning for him. It was strange but the feeling was nice enough.

Slowly he lessened the death grip he had on the guy's clothing.

"That's good, now stretch out your legs like me and walk." The man smiled and Ace noted absently that it was a nice smile, kind of empty but still nice.

Ace slowly lowered his legs which had been curled up under him, he hadn't even noticed he'd down that. Now slightly embarrassed and annoyed he stretched them out fully and began to move them and even though he felt silly he did as the man directed and pretended to walk as if there were solid ground underneath them.

Ace smirked as he quickly got a handle on the air walking trick, he would have gloated but the man began to talk just then.

"So now I'll escort you to where you were headed. I've got matters to attend too and I shouldn't dilly any longer."

Ace turned his head around and scowled, the feeling of giddiness faded at the man's dismissal tone. The guy's head was facing forward and any feeling of gentleness or kindness that he had shown seemed to have fled. Only coldness and emptiness was seen now.

"Well excuse me for interrupting your business sir, but in case it passed your noticed those…things…hadn't been after me but you."

The man seemed to have taken offensive if the way his nose wrinkled up and his mouth turned down harshly was in any way an indication.

"Well if you hadn't been in that alleyway then I wouldn't have had to go out of my way no would I?"

Okay then if that's how he wants to do this then Ace would happy respond in kind.

Ace felt himself puff up in fury, it was different than the fire from before. This time he wasn't annoyed or anything small like that.

He was pissed the fuck off and really wanted to kick his ass.

"Let me down now." Ace growled out. "I can find my own way home."

The man shook his head dismissingly. "There's a chance that we might have been followed so leaving you without protection would be stupid."

"Oh? More stupid then leading them to my home!?" Ace snarled and the man frowned before he hesitantly agreed. Ace smiled but it was a brittle smile with no victory too it.

Floating down to the ground the man let go a lot more softly then Ace would have thought, almost lingeringly even but Ace dismissed this thought before it could grow, he was reading into something that wasn't really there and would only humiliate himself if he addressed it.

Ace looked around and after a second recognized where they had landed. Surprisingly they weren't that far from the shop, two streets away in fact.

"I'll take my leave then." Said the man and before Ace could say anything, not that he knew what he'd say in the first place, the man vanished into thin air.

Ace gasped and reached out, in case the man hadn't just vanished and instead turned invisible…

Ace paused as his hand touched nothing but air, this was a strange day if thoughts such as vanishing and invisibility felt normal, not to mention scary, shadowy puppet monsters.

"I think I need a nap." Ace mumbled and began to walk away. He was glad he had gotten away unhurt and all but he still felt…cheated that the man hadn't stayed any longer, maybe even offer up an explanation as to what had happened back there.

Unknowest to Ace someone was watching from the shadows and had been since the alleyway. Someone who very much wanted to meet the brat that had seemed to have caught the attention of Wizard Phoenix.

Ace heaved a sigh of relief as he locked the door behind him, glad that no one had followed him home. Walking soft footed through the store he could hear his brother's loud voice on the other side of the wall where they all lived, he could also hear another voice…his grandfather's.

"Crap."

Knowing that dragging his feet was only extending the enviable Ace walked to a door along the back wall and slowly opened it, hoping that they wouldn't hear him and he could sneak into his room without being noticed.

"ACE!"

Ace flinched and backpedaled but it was already too late. A large hand reached out and gripped tightly to his shirt and pulled him forward into the room.

_What was with everyone mishandling him today?!_

Ace 'eep'ed' as he tried to duck his grandfather's other fist as it swung towards his head. Peeling out of his shirt by lifting his arms he ducked down and scuttled around his enraged relative.

He could hear Luffy snickering in the background, when Ace got out of this he was so going to beat that little shit upside the head.

"Sit still and take the fist of love from me Ace!" Garp bellowed and caught Ace's ankle.

"Ack!" Ace cried out, knowing that he was already doomed and yet continued to try to wiggle out of Garp's grasp.

A fist slammed hard against his head causing black spots to dance in front of his eyes. Shaking his head Ace used his other foot to kick out, hoping to knee cap the old man or something. Just enough that he could make a break for it.

"Ah miss!" Garp laughed before lifting Ace by his ankle and throwing him across the room.

Ace may have screamed as he slammed into Luffy who hadn't dogged fast enough.

"Fuuuck." Ace moaned as he rolled over ignoring Luffy's affronted cries of lost dignity.

"Ace, you ingrate! Why was the shop closed early today?" Garp grumbled before walking past his grandsons to the table were plates of food were already laid out. He sat down with a huff and lifted a juicy piece of meat up to his mouth and devoured it…bone and all.

Ace automatically glared at Luffy. "You talked."

"Noooo" Luffy whined, "Gramps found me at the dock with Usopp and the others."

"Luffy you know you're not allowed near the docks!" Ace snapped. "You can't swim dickhead."

Luffy waved away his concern making Ace scowl. "Its fine, Usopp would save me."

Ace scoff at the notion. "Yea because you've brow beaten him so much he's conditioned to you."

Luffy just laughed and for a second everything was fine…

"ACE…" A low growl came from the direction of the table. "Stop ignoring my question."

"Ah." Ace could feel sweat begin to gather along his hair line. "Well you see…there was an event in town and everybody seemed to be at it so…it wasn't like staying open would have made a difference if there weren't any customers anyway."

"…"

Ace stared at the silence, getting progressively more creeped out by the second.

Luffy, the little idiot, hadn't seemed to realize the tension in the room because he'd sat down and was stuffing his face full of food.

Ace began to once again try to back out, but Garp's boiling point had finally reached its peak.

"That's the shittist excuse I've ever heard!" Garp roared and before Ace knew it he was once again getting acquainted with the wall via his head through the wood. Ace groaned in pain and checked to see if he was bleeding, as luck would have it he didn't have any open wounds but a lovely lump was beginning to grow amongst his hair.

"I think I've been too lax on you boys." Garp growled and cracked his knuckles. "It's been three months since I've given you any proper training, you've gotten all soft on me." Garp glared a stern eye to his grandsons. "Yes…it's been too long since I've tested your resolve."

"Our resolve to live is just fine!" Ace snapped, he was getting annoyed now. It had been two weeks since Garp had made an appearance in the shop and both Ace and Luffy had devoted much of their time running it. Although more Ace then Luffy but he wasn't really bothered by that. Luffy was still young and Ace knew that Luffy was destined for more than their little shop. Not like Ace who had long ago accepted his fate of being the oldest and so would then take over the shop and run it till he was old and grey.

Garp laughed, a malicious thing that sent chills up both brothers' backs. "If that were so then you would have known better than to come home tonight knowing that I as coming!"

"Maybe I just wanted to see you shitty old man!" Ace snapped back. He turned to Luffy hoping for support in this but… "Fuck Luffy's abandoned ship."

Garp turned around as well and groaned. The table had been wiped clean of any edible food and a trail of crumbs leading to the bedrooms showed just were Luffy had decided to flee too.

Garp huffed but his anger had finally seemed to simmer down, although Ace knew from previous experience that that could change at a moment's notice.

"I expect both of you to be ready in the morning, we are all going on a small trip."

Ace frowned, "On such short notice? But what about the shop?"

"Ha! Now it seems you care whether or not it is open for customers."

"I told you shitty gramps that there weren't any customers today. Not any good ones anyway."

Garp waved his hand, dismissing what Ace said. "I don't care what stupid excuses you have. We are leaving in the morning, I've already informed Luffy earlier, pack light, we'll be on the move and the less we have to carry the better."

"Oi, what's going on?" Ace asked, suspicion filling his voice, he was use too going on small trips with his family, usually somewhere in the wilds so that their gramps could drill them into the ground with his 'fists of love' crap and throwing them into dangerous situations that would have likely killed most people.

Ace was just lucky that he and his brother were very hard to kill.

"Nothing you have to worry about."

"…Is this about the war?"

Garp frowned heavily and glared at Ace. "How'd you hear about that?"

"Apparently that's what the event was about, some parade about sending soldiers off to a war with a neighboring country."

Garp snorted. "Stupid and pompous, but you can't expect more from the Capitol."

"What's really going on old man?" Ace asked, he could feel himself getting worried now. With what had happened today and the feeling that something bad was going to happen soon he wasn't in the mood to dance around the issue.

Garp's face twisted in thought, he was clearing thinking about his options, if he should either wave Ace's concern away- which would totally prompt Ace to try to kick the old man's ass, or tell the truth- which might cause Ace to become paranoid but at least he'd be grateful to be treated like the young adult he was.

Ace knew what was stalling his grandfather, despite Garp's heavy handed treatments he loved his grandsons and had raised them since they were children. He was the only parent that Ace and Luffy had known and viewed them as the smart-ass kids they had once been…and kind of still were at times.

"I'm twenty years old Gramps. I'm old enough and I'd like to think I deserve some sort of explanation."

Garp sighed and waved to a couple of chairs. "Sit and I'll explain a little. I won't tell you everything, you may be twenty Ace but you are still a child under my care and most of what I know doesn't concern you anyway."

Ace huffed, annoyed beyond reason but decided to accept Garp's piss poor excuses for now.

"I'm sure you've heard about what this war is about."

"Yea some stupid prince got lost and now we're getting blamed." Ace leaned back against the chair and stretched, his muscles felt cramped, most likely from all that running earlier.

"That's only half of it." Garp groaned, "Apparently one of the Royal Family's little court wizards predicted that Goa will use this war to take over territory, not to mention that Goa has several very strong Witches and Wizards in their service, some are even rumored to be our own, double dealing traitors. Apparently their the Capitol's head wizard tried to dispel his colleagues warnings but our King is paranoid to a very high degree and decided to believe the lower stationed wizard rather than his higher ranking one. Stupid brat."

Ace didn't really care about politics and he could care less about some prince from another country but decided to listen anyway, less likely to get hit that way.

"There's also a rumor that a powerful Wizard is playing double agent to the enemy, we don't know who yet but we have a list of suspects, too many of our supplies have gotten sabotage for there not to be a traitor. The only positive information we've gotten is that Goa's having similar problems with their own supplies."

"Sounds less like a traitor and more like someone who just hates this fucking war."

Ace got smacked hard by an enraged Garp. "Shut up brat! It's obvious that this person is being paid on both sides to mess with things."

"Then why is he or she just messing with supplies? I'd think assassination or something like that would be more lucrative." Ace sassed back, nursing the small bump on his head.

"Silence! You know nothing of the evils of this world yet. You're still such a child." Garp taunted and made another swap at him, luckily this time Ace managed to dodge it.

"Whatever old man. Listen I don't really care about this. It has nothing to do with me so let's just forget it. I've already figured out that you were ordered to bring me and Luffy in right? Considering who we are…"

"You are my goddamn grandchildren and anyone who says differently can eat my fist of love!" Garp roared and slammed his fists down on the table, like he was imagining it being someone's head.

Ace smirked, "That's why we're leaving right? Because of some order you got. You know what will happen to you once the war's over and we come back right? You'd be lucky to only go to prison. Not to mention what would happen to Luffy and me."

"I'm no longer an officer of the Capitol, they have no cause to give me orders, no matter what they think I'm retired now and I'm only a humble shop owner living with his two grandsons. Humbly."

"…Right. Anyway I'm sure that the prince will be found sooner or later and this war will stop once that happens so let's not dwell on it, especially if we're going to fucking flee like kicked dogs. I'm guessing we're going to sea…well that's okay. Luffy will enjoy a nice fishing trip."

Garp nodded in agreement, if there was one hobby other than eating that Luffy enjoyed it was fishing. He and his friend Usopp liked to get into competitions about who could catch the larger fish. Sadly neither of them had any talent for it and they usually came home empty handed, that didn't mean that the boys didn't have fun though which was what Ace and Garp liked to see.

"Everything will be fine, as long as we don't call attention to ourselves everything should go smoothly. Besides they don't know what they think they know. Only speculations and I'll be damned if they found any proof."

"True." Ace nodded. "By the way since we're talking about calling attention to ourselves…I may have."

"Have what?"

"Called attention."

"…?"

"…To myself."

Garp's face turned thunderous again. "What did you do brat?"

"I may have-well it's kind of complicated but I-" Ace stumbled his way through his explanation. He hadn't planned on telling anyone about what had happened today but with his grandfather so obviously worried about things it just seemed to come out. Not that it was a problem or anything. Ace would never again meet that mysterious man or those creepy things in the alleyway. That was stuff that happened to princes and wizards and magical folk. People with a purpose or something. Ace wasn't any of those things.

"Spit it out."

"WhenIwentouttodayImayhavegotteninvolvedinaconflictbeteenWizardsbecauseImetonewellmorelikeI-"

"Ace!"

"Right sorry, umm while I was headed home after seeing that parade I may have taken one of the alleyway short cuts that connect the upper district and here. While I was walking I may have stumbled in between some kind of argument between Wizards because there were these creepy doll things but I guess I was kind of rescued because this guy pulled me away and literally flow us away. I mean that literally we walked on air. Anyway I didn't get his name or anything but he was dressed very nicely, almost like some noble now that I think about it. He kind of had that air about him you know? All self-important and hedostic."

Garp stayed quiet throughout Ace's rant, his face had gone all still like and he didn't make any move even after Ace's voice had tampered off. It was unnerving and Ace really wished Garp would do something.

He got his wish two seconds later and really wished that he had kept his wishes to himself.

"YOU STUPID CHILD!" Garp roared and lunged at Ace who had been unprepared for his grandfather to tackle him like that.

"What the heck old man!?" Ace shouted as they scuffled, Ace managing to land a few hits but mostly got them himself.

Ace ignored his grandfather's rants about how careless he'd been and blah blah blah.

When the hits finally stopped coming, Ace at this point just curled up in a ball and hid his head under his arms, he looked up to see Garp's worried face staring down at him.

"Do you know what could have happened? If that wizard had been powerful…it could have been the Phoenix for all you know!"

"Who's that?" Ace asked softly.

"Who's tha-?! Argh you really need to catch up with the news kid. Wizard Phoenix is a very, very powerful Wizard. I've heard he's even more powerful than the Court Wizard, also there are rumors that he incorporates dark magicks, mostly by stealing the still beating hearts of beautiful maidens and fellas."

Ace snorted, "I guess I'm safe then, even if he'd been this Phoenix guy if he only goes after good looking people he wouldn't have tried to take my heart."

Garp just gaped at his stupid, clueless grandson. He'd known since Ace had been an actual child that his eldest grandson would grow into a handsome young man, he'd been partial right because Ace wasn't just handsome, he was beautiful in the way that very few were nowadays. His features were delicate and soft enough to be mistaken for a soft and tantalizing, placid mannered gentleman.

Sadly Ace's personality contracted that, mostly anyway. Ace could at times be very nice and mild mannered if the situation presented itself but more often than not he was a punk ass kid with a smart mouth, but only too people he either really hates or really likes.

"You are a moron." Garp stated as a fact and punched Ace once more before getting up. "Go to bed, we'll talk more later about you seducing Wizards when I've had some sleep."

Ace blushed, both in embarrassment and anger. "Shitty old man! There was no s-seducing! Go screw a goat!"

Garp just laughed and left for his own bed. Ace laid there on the ground in a huff, his whole body hurt and he was too hyped up from that little talk that he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep anytime soon.

Deciding what to do he looked at the door that separated their living area to their shop. There was always something he could do out there, whether it was inventory or just dusting it would be mind numbing boring work so that maybe if he did that for an hour or two he'd feel sleepy enough to go to bed.

Cleaning up the mess they had all made took no time at all and before Ace knew it he was out in the shop looking over some of the shop books and trying to figure out if they needed to order more rope or not. He had a single candle lite and it was barely enough light to read by but that may have been because the moon seemed to have hidden in the clouds somewhere, it was completely dark outside and Ace shivered as he looked up and out the window. Complete darkness greeted him…which now that he thought about it was strange, there should have been some street lights lite at least, not to mention the bar down the street would have also had light spilling from its doors, it would have been nosy too since the bar would be at its peak hours right now but Ace couldn't hear a single thing other than his own breathing.

Ace frowned and before he could move over to the window to look outside he heard a sharp ding, it was the bell that was connected to the front door. It usually signaled customers but considering the hour…

"What?" Ace said and looked towards the…lady? That walked in, closing the door sharply behind her. "I'm sorry miss but we're closed right now. Its dark out and we close at sunset. I could have sworn that I locked that door earlier. Gramps is going to kill me if he finds out."

The woman paused in front of the door, a glacial anger about her as she glared at him. After a second though she shook her head, causing the pink feathery coat she wore to move as well, it was truly an ugly coat but Ace tried not to judge. He knew people with more eccentric tastes and still had very awesome personalities.

"I was going to go easy on you, considering how much an unattractive bore you seemed but I've changed my mind."

The voice was deep, much deeper than any girl's Ace had ever heard before. Ace had the sinking feeling that the lady in front of him wasn't really a lady, a second later though Ace processed what had been said and got pissed off.

"What the hell? Get the hell out of here! The doors behind you, try not to drop any feathers on the way out." Ace growled and stalked forward, getting ready to throw out yet another rude customer. Seriously, two in one day. Ace was not up for this kind of crap today.

He failed to notice how the shadows seem to grow unnaturally in the corners. How the flame in the single candle he had wavered in an non-existent wind. Ace also failed to notice the deranged smile that the pink feathered person wore.

"Teh, standing up to the Puppet Master of the Waste…how utterly amusing."

Ace stop walking as he stared wide eyed at the self-proclaimed Puppeteer. He may not know too much about Wizards, considering his earlier case of 'who's Phoenix?' but even he knew who the so called Master of the Wastes was, mostly because of the huge body count the man had dropped. "The Puppet Master of the…Waste? Shit." Ace finally took noticed of how dark the room had gotten, hearing something near the door he looked and paled, those puppet monsters were crowding the open doorway. Which had been closed all of two seconds ago, he hadn't even heard the bell ring. Their smiles were exactly like the Puppeteer before him, deranged and wrathful, completely mad.

Before Ace could respond to the situation, not that he knew what to do- he'd rather not get his family involved, the Puppeteer sprang into action. Floating forward with a speed that rivaled a train he ghosted through Ace's body.

.Disgusting.

"Gah!" Ace shouted as the feeling of something sickly sticking to his body, inside and out.

"Best part of this little curse, you won't be able to talk about it. So going to ask for help will be impossible. Heheh say hello to Phoenix for me little brat."

Ace barely heard him, he was more concerned with the foul feeling of sludge that covered him.

"Ehh." Ace grimaced. "Wha-?" He felt…off.

Looking down at his hands it took all of Ace's self-control to stop himself from screaming out loud.

His hands!

Ace whimpered as he stared down at the wrinkled, skinny hands, they were almost claw-like with age and neglect.

Frantically he groped his face, it didn't feel right…it didn't feel like _his_ face.

"What the hell is going on?!" Ace ran towards a tarnished mirror on the wall, it had belonged to some estate and his grandfather had taken a liking to it. Personally Ace and Luffy thought that the old mirror was butt ugly with its gaudy frame but to each their own.

The person standing before him…wasn't him, _couldn't be him._

An old man stood in front of the mirror, he was wearing Ace's clothing, which loosely hung off the old man's frame and his hair was a light silvery color, not unlike Garp's but while Ace's grandfather had gray hair it was a dark steel grey. This old man staring wide-eyed in the mirror had a liquidly silver shade and was the same length as Ace's, shoulder length. His face was aged and not gracefully either, maybe it could have been once but it was like _age _literally was sucking out the old man's body and soul.

"That's…me."

Ace moved his head side to side and watched as the old man did the same thing, he tried to smile but it was like the skin on his face was so thick and saggy it looked more like a lopsided grimace.

Ace turned away and began to pace frantically, back and forth he walked along the length of the shop. "This is insane…there's no way…this is a dream, no nightmare. Yea a nightmare and I'm going to wake up any second because shit like this doesn't happen. In fact I think this whole day was a terrible dream…" Ace mumbled to himself and turned once more to the mirror, and seeing the old man and not his youthful face with freckles he ran to his room, uncaring of the noise he made or if he woke anyone else.

Because this was all a dream and there is no freaking way this was happening to him.

It was only a few hours later when Ace woke up from a restless sleep. He laid there on his bed and listened to the loud snores of his brother and grandfather echo in the rooms surrounding his.

Slowly he lifted his hands and glared before sighing, they were still old and wrinkly.

"Guess it wasn't a dream. Shit." Ace closed his eyes and willed himself not to cry or scream out in frustration. He knew what he needed to do now, he just really didn't want to do it.

Slowly he crept out of bed dragging his blanket with him, he could feel his joints creek and ache in pain as he moved around his room.

"Shit this sucks, why does it hurt to move? I'm probably the same age as Gramps and he moves with more agility then Luffy." He huffed and straightened his shirt and fixed the laces that made up his collar which had come undone during his few hours of tossing and turning, picking out a boring set of brown suspenders, at least his clothing matched his age now.

"Damn, my stomach's all concaved." He examined his chest and winched as he saw that his beloved four pack set of abs had wasted away leaving thin skin stretched over his almost visible ribs, not to mention the liver spots dotting him like a damn Dalmatian.

Leaving the blanket to drape along his shoulders he packed a small sack with extra clothing and money, along with a loaf of bread he'd left in his room a few nights ago, it was still good if a little hard.

The very last thing he picked up was his red beaded necklace, a present from Luffy on his eighteenth birthday. He never went a day without it and he'd be damned if he left it behind.

He stopped outside his brother's door, just listening to Luffy breath in his sleep before touching the wood.

"Bye Luffy, I promise to come home as soon as I lift this curse. Be safe." He whispered and walked away. Determined not to look back, he had a freak in pink feathers to find and beat the crap out of.

The sun was barely rising over the horizon as Ace walked down the street, he decided to head towards the Wastes. Because if that feathered bastard said he was the Master of the Wastes then he better be in the damned Wastes to master over.

He ignored everyone around him as the town slowly woke itself up to get ready for the day. For everyone else it was a normal day, nothing special and for that Ace could almost hate them.

Their shop was close to the north side of town near the sea so he'd have to head in the opposite direction in order to get to the Wastes, luckily the Wastes were huge so even if he veered off direction a bit he'd probably still end up somewhere in the Wastes once he left the town line. At least he knew that if he saw nothing but small hills and flat ground he knew he'd gone west…which is not the direction he wants to go in.

"Shit." Ace swore as he looked at the main road in front of him that lead to the Capitol…which is not where he wanted to go. "How did I get turned around? I was going south how did I go west? Damn- maybe the morning light turned me around. It's too early to be up anyway, hehe or maybe I'm losing my mind in my old age."

Ace smirked at himself before turning back around, he'd been walking for a good eighteen minutes now, and if he wanted to get out of town before Garp woke up and noticed him missing he only had another hour or so.

"Oi, old man."

"…"

Maybe he could ask for directions or something?

"OI! Gramps!"

Ace froze, shit- had his shitty grandfather found him already?! He frantically looked around but he couldn't see Garp anywhere.

"Old man are you hard of hearing or something?"

Ace finally noticed the annoying kid in front of him…and that was addressing _him._

Oh right, he was the old man.

Ace's eyebrow twitched. "Who are you calling old you brat?"

"I'm staring at you old man, who do you think I'm talking too?" The kid…who looked familiar now that Ace stared at him more…curly black hair, tanned skin…long nose.

"Usopp?"

Usopp narrowed his eyes. "Do I know you?"

Ace panicked for a second before calming down, there was no way that Usopp would recognize him as he was right now. Ace was safe as long as he didn't give himself away.

"Uh noooo…I've heard about you from Luffy. I-it was the nose that gave you away." Ace stammered a bit through the lie, which really wasn't a lie. Ace meet Usopp when Luffy had dragged the kid home one day, pronouncing the scared kid as his best friend and showing him off like a show pony.

"Oh." Usopp seemed to have accepted Ace's explanation. He crooked his head a little and smirked. "So the reason I tried to get your attention was because I noticed that you were looking a bit lost. Are you new to town?"

Ace coughed and edged away. He really couldn't afford to tilly-tally for much longer and especially to someone who knew the D family. He needed to find that damn Puppet moron and beat him up before making him turn him back to normal. Ace had been tired and shocked by what had happened earlier in the day so he hadn't been at his best when that damned witch man had cursed him. He should have kicked his ass before he could use his damn hoodoo on him but Ace was now much calmer and angrier than before. No more panicking, he had a goal and he was going to reach that goal if it killed…everyone else around him.

"Not very, I'm actually hoping to head south from here towards the mountains. So if you can direct me down the right street I can be on my way. I'm sure a…young man such as you has chores or something to do so I won't take your time."

"Oi gramps you're not thinking of heading towards the Wastes right?! That's witch territory! I heard even the Phoenix and the Puppet Master are living around there! If you head down this road and turn at the first left fork you'll get there in no time! It's a death sentence!"

"Really?" Ace smiled, "Great that's really great. I need to go now before he damn well leaves the area."

"What?" Usopp's jaw dropped, "Your looking for them!"

"Well one of them anyway. Thanks Usopp for the help."

Ace walked away as quickly as his aged body would allow, which wasn't very fast sadly. He ignored the cries of horror and "Don't do it! Its suicide!" from Usopp who seemed to have been frozen to the ground as he watched the old man hobble to the Wastes where he no doubt would be killed.

"Insane, I better tell Luffy about this, since that old man said he knew him. Maybe he's an old friend of Luffy's gramps who has gone off his rocker or something." Usopp mumbled to himself before heading to the small shop that his best friend lived and worked with his family. "Something about that old man reminded me of someone…heh he almost looked like Ace. I better not tell him that though, Ace will kick my butt if I said he resembled an old man."

Ace finally found himself on the edge of the Wastes, he took a moment to find himself a nice sized rock to take a breather.

"_Ha ha ha."_ He panted as sweat dripped from his face. "I haven't _ha ha_ even made it _ha ha _to the bottom of the mountain." Ace ranked his shaking hand through his sweat damp hair. "Shit this is going to be _ha ha ha _harder than I thought if I get tired in the beginning of the journey."

Ace only let himself have five minutes of rest before he forced his body in motion. He needed to get higher up in the Wastes before he could really stop. The higher he was the likelihood he'd be able to spot something in the mists that made up the Wastes. He would need to avoid Wizard Phoenix's Castle, while that would probably be obvious to see in the rolling hills and mountains Ace wasn't sure what the Puppet Master dwelled in, he only heard rumors of the man-witch flying through the air or being driven around in a carriage, nothing about his home or anything useful. Only that he dwelled in the mists of the Wastes and liked to terrorize travelers.

"Hopefully he hadn't left the area, he was in town last night so he should still be around here. The Wastes are vast, I don't know how to find him if he decided to teleport or something stupid like that. He better not be all the way on the other side of the Wastes…wherever that is." Ace grouched before walking up the side of the mountain. Luckily there was a beaten path that he could use, although the path looked like it hadn't been maintained in years with the amount of brush that grew everywhere and the large rocks that blocked his path continuously causing him to go around them which tired him out even more.

Ace walked for what felt like days but was probably no longer than a few hours at most before he had to take another break, not just because he was tired but because…

"Ow ow ow! My back!" Ace whined as his back popped and not in a good way. He almost fell to his knees when he felt something shift in his lower back. The pain was terrible, he thought Garp's fist of love was painfully…that was _really_ a love tap compared to this. "Old age sucks!"

"I need a stick or something. Well I'd prefer someone carrying me at this point but I doubt that's going to happen." Ace looked around himself as he leaned against a large rock on the side of the path. He'd sit down but he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to get back up again if he did.

After a few moments of searching the grounds, no damn sticks, his dick was bigger than these tiny twigs! He looked at the large bush across from him, staring at it intently for a second he contemplated the large stick sticking out of the top.

"That'll do." He smirked and slowly made his way over and gripped the end. At first he gently pulled, hoping to spare himself any pain but it was clear that the stick was stuck.

"Damn it. Move you stinking stick!" He grunted out as he pulled harder and harder, making his back pop multiple times. "Come on move!"

Ace pushed down on the branch hoping to loosen it up, finally it moved freely. Ace cheered and pulled it upward until it was free of the bush.

Ace let go of the stick and stared. "What the heck!?" It wasn't a stick at all but a-

"Scarecrow?"

Standing on its own too. Ace backed up a few paces. "O-okay then. More witchcraft I see. Well…I'm going to go now. Bye."

Ace turned face firmly and walked away. There was no way he was getting involved with more nonsense, just no.

Ace at first couldn't hear it because the wind had gotten stronger and it echoed through the hills but soon enough he could hear a strange squeaking from behind him. He knew who- what it was the moment he heard it but he figured as long as he didn't turn around and acknowledge it then it would hopefully go away.

But after a while the squeaking began to get on his nerves, finally after more time passed he'd had enough.

Ace turned around and glared at the scarecrow that had been following right behind him for the past hour. "Look here, there's no need to thank me or whatever you think you're going to do and if you're thinking of doing something nefarious I warn you I will chop you up into firewood and warm myself on your burning bark. I've had it up to here with curses and magic assholes that curse others and I really don't want to get involved with yours, got it? Please leave and go stand in some field or something. I'm sure with your ugly veggie head that the ravens and crows won't crap on you."

The scarecrow stopped hopping and just seemed to stare at him, it was more than a little unnerving and Ace tried not to fidget visibly, there was no need to show weakness after all. Ace nodded sharply and turned back around to continue his journey. He hadn't seen a sign of anything around him, scarecrow not included, and he hoped that he would spot some shelter or something before it got dark.

"Or rain." He whispered as he stared up at the heavy looking clouds above him. They looked like they were one second away from pouring down on him and with this frail body he'd rather not catch a cold, it may just kill him.

Something suddenly fell to the ground next to him, startling him into a small jump. It was a cane, a well-made one at that with some kind of sheep head on top. It was kind of cute looking but better yet it was exactly what he needed.

Ace stared at it and reached out, gripping the head firmly with his knobby hands. He turned to the scarecrow that had dropped it and looked at it properly for the first time.

It definitely was a scarecrow, one post standing with one smaller one across to serve as arms. Serving as clothing was a white shirt, blue pants that fluttered in the wind and a long blue jacket. The scarecrow also had gloves that somehow managed to stay on and a large blue top hat with goggles which sat wobbly on his veggie head. The face on the veggie was simple and yet sad looking. Just a simple smile and two holes to serve as eyes.

"Thanks." Ace said and tried to come up with something else. "Ummm how about this. Since you're in a helping mood why don't you find me some kind of shelter? The rain won't hold off for long and I doubt you want to get drenched too."

The scarecrow stood there for a second as if processing Ace's request before turning around and hopping off. Either to do as Ace asked or to fuck off. Either way Ace didn't really care, at least that damned squeaking was gone.

"Heh."

It wasn't too much later that Ace decided to take another break and rethink his plan to find the bastard that did this to him. The day felt like it was almost over already and he could still see the town below him, granted he was far enough that he couldn't see individual people but to know that he hadn't gotten very far in the long time he'd been looking was discouraging.

A loud noise startled him out of his thoughts, Ace stared dumbly as a giant castle rose over the hill in front of him, he hadn't even heard it coming until it was practically on top of him and leading in front of the moving castle was that goddamn scarecrow.

"You stupid-!" Ace spited out as the scarecrow hopped to him and then began to circle him, as if it was waiting for Ace to praise it or something. "That's a wizard's castle! Probably the Phoenix's too! When I asked you to find me shelter this is not what I had in mind!"

The castle just kept on coming, Ace doubted that anyone steering it would have seen him on the ground in front of it. At least he kind of hoped that someone was steering it because if the castle was just wandering on its own…gods magic was a pain in the ass to even think about.

Although now that Ace got a good look at it the castle looked less like a castle and more like a…junk house.

Pieces of wood and metal were all pieced together hazardable in a way that it was obvious that magic held it up together. There were a few things recognizable such as windows and such but mostly it looked like some kind of mix matched child's artwork.

Like something Luffy made when he was 2 years old and hyped up on sugar cookies.

"Well that's not going to win any beauty awards." Ace mumbled and he could see the stupid scarecrow weave on its stick back and forth as if nodding in agreement.

Ace snorted and watched as the 'castle' passed over him, with odd chicken like legs the 'castle' was easily 10 feet above him passing over him with ease.

He turned and watched it walk away for a moment before noticing that there was a backdoor that was only a few feet above ground. The scarecrow hopped over to it and looked back at Ace, as if encouraging him to get inside already.

A loud rumble of thunder off into the distance decided for him.

"Alright already." Ace said and began to hobble as fast as he could with his cain as the castle walked further away. "Hey if you're going to let me in slow down!"

The castle didn't slow down but that didn't matter because with a burst of speed Ace made it to the small stone steps that were situated in front of the door, holding onto the frail looking rail he turned back and stared at the scarecrow who was trying to keep up. "I don't think you'll fit through the door so if you want to continue onward with me, though I don't know why you would, you might want to find a good spot to hop on and ride it out until it stops." Ace said before offering up a small smile, it was after all the scarecrow that had found this place and lead it too him.

Hopefully it wasn't a trap.

With that grim thought now stuck in his head Ace grimaced and opened the door, slightly surprised to find it unlocked but then who would be dumb enough to break into a Wizard's home?

Ace closed the door behind him and then as stealthily as he could with this old body of his he crept up some more stairs. Sneaking a peek above ground he made sure that he was the only one in the room before continuing on.

The first thing that really caught his attention was the chair in front of a fire pit, where a small fire was burning.

Ace made his way to the chair and sank down on it the a sigh of relief, his body was aching and he was so tired he felt like he could sleep for a week. Noticing the fire was running really low he looked around for some logs to throw on. Noticing a few to the side he reluctantly got up and threw a few on top of the flame.

Sitting back down Ace lifted his hands to the flame, trying to get more warmth in them. It seemed that his body was so thin that nothing really kept it warm, maybe he should have packed a cloak or something but Ace was so use to being warm since he naturally ran hotter than most that he hadn't even thought to bring or wear something more warmer when he had set out.

Now that he was in a secure place, more or less for the moment Ace looked around him. The place was a dump, and he didn't mean that it was kind of messy. He lived in messy and this was certainly not that.

It was literally a dump.

There was dust and large cob webs everywhere as well as large spider nests and a few mouse holes, dirty dishes filled every available spot in the open kitchen area to the side of him. There was a table that had books and scrolls and more dirty dishes on it covering the whole table, and a dusty looking couch that had more crap on it. In fact the only place that hadn't had something on it was the chair Ace had just sat on.

Ace just snorted in disgust and a bit disbelief. Why would a Wizard want to live in such a place? If Ace had half of the magical prowess that the Phoenix was said to have he would have cleaned up all this in one spell then lived happily and cleanly with his grandpa and Luffy, in a place free from…ugh. Ace gulped, he was sure that the food mold on one of the plates just moved on its own.

"I may not be scared of magic or wizards, one of the perks of old age I guess but this place…gross." Ace shuddered, only half in jest.

Ace looked back to the fire which was burning merrily now that it had more wood to chow down on. Now that he more relaxed and out of the cold he could see that the fire was…burning a different color.

"Green?" Ace murmured to himself, "What an odd choice of color. I guess I can't begrudge someone their favorite color but why would you want your fire to burn the color of seaweed?"

"OI. Not seaweed." A voice called out, sounding annoyed by Ace's question.

Ace didn't startle this time, maybe the day had finally caught up to him but he peered tiredly into the fire…no he wasn't looking into the fire but at the actual fire.

The fire was actually a little person, kind of. More like a blob with a face which was currently set in a scowl as the little fire person stared at him.

"Sorry." Ace apologized, "I didn't know what else to categorize your color as."

"Hmm." The fire frowned. "You aren't' the first to say my coloring is like that of seaweed but I prefer something else."

"Like?"

"Don't know yet."

Ace decided to drop the topic, luckily the fire spirit did it for him. He could feel sleep clawing at him and he was letting it as the long day finally caught up with him.

"I don't envy you though, that's a nasty curse you have on you. I'm guessing that self-proclaimed Puppet Master did that to you, huh?"

Ace tried to nod but found he couldn't move. His voice was taken from him as well.

"Ah so the curse won't let you speak about it. Yea that's going to be a dozy to unbreak, you're in for a rough ride."

Ace sighed and leaned back, he'd figured that would be the case but he'd been hoping to hear something different.

"So are you this Phoenix character I've been hearing about?"

The fire laughed, "No, my name is Zoro. I'm a very powerful fire demon bound to this castle in servitude of Marco."

Ace tilted his head to the side, "Marco? Who's that?"

Zoro smirked and let his flame burn a little hotter and brighter to give better effect. "You don't really thing that the Wizard who lives here is actually named Phoenix do you? One of Marco's wizardry titles is Phoenix, given to him when he-well let's just say that he did something really cool."

Ace tried to keep his awe from showing but judging by Zoro's smirk he doubted he succeeded.

Ace coughed and cleared his throat, trying to stop his face from blushing. "So if you're a powerful demon then you can break this curse on me?"

"Maybe, maybe not. But if you want my help kid then you have to do something for me."

Ace scolded, of course the demon wanted something in return. Nobody would do anything for nothing after all. "Of course."

"Don't worry it's nothing criminal. I just need some help lifting my own spell. You see I'm bound to Marco and so I'm bound to this castle. I want out. This is humiliating for a fire demon such as myself."

"Riiiight."

"No really! Marco treats me as his slave! Do you know how hard it is to keep his baths hot! He takes so many and then to keep the rooms all warm and cozy for them. Even the ones they don't use! Also this big ass metal tin can? It is a pain to drive it, seriously I get a work out every day driving this damn thing and its hard work to even get it moving let alone maneuver it to certain places!"

"Sounds rough." Ace said absently, he could feel sleep tugging on his eyelids. He wanted to feel annoyed because normally he would never go to bed this early but the day had dragged on and all he wanted to do is sleep.

"Yes it is. Thank you for noticing. Marco certainly never notices and neither does that damn curly-brat."

Ace nodded. "Well I guess I can try to break your spell but how will I know you'll try to help me if I succeed?"

Zoro shifted his eyes sideways. "Demons don't make promises."

"Well then find someone else who will be suckered into a crappy deal with you."

"Fine!" Zoro scowled heavily and lifted his small arm. "If you promise to break the spell on me I will do everything in my power to break your curse."

Ace smirked and leaned forward. "It's a deal." And without much thought to it reached out and shook Zoro's hand, well more like he delicately took his fingers and shook Zoro's little hand with the tips, his whole hand looked bigger than Zoro at the moment.

Zoro stared at their joint hands for a moment, a weird expression on his face. Ace pulled back and got settled in, now that everyone was happy, or as happy as they can be considering the circumstances Ace decided that now was a good time to konk out.

"Oi are you going to sleep?! We have to plan! Oi wake up grandpa!" Zoro's voice floated into Ace's ears as he drifted off to sleep.

Ace woke up to someone knocking on the door, he lifted his head and stared around him, not remembering anything and wondering where he was before his neck and back popped, showing how unhappy they were to have slept in an uncomfortable chair all night.

"Ow." Ace said before slowly moving his limbs around to make sure none of them stiffened up any worse than they already had. The knocking persisted and Ace was just beginning to wonder if he should go over and open it when the sound of footsteps reached his ears.

Ace turned and saw someone descending from the stairs that were situated along the back wall. Leaning back and closing his eyes Ace pretended to snore as the person walked by.

"Who the hell is this?" A voice asked.

Ace could tell the speaker was male and a young one at that, maybe around his brother's age.

"Water 7's door." Zoro called out. The knocking was still going on and getting louder by the second.

"Yea yea I got it." The voice moved away and Ace chanced opening his eyes as he stared at a young boy with blond hair move over to the table and pulling out a long cloak from under neither some books, causing them to clash onto the ground. Ace winched at the noise and the careless way the youth left the mess and walked towards the door. He don the cloak and suddenly instead of a young boy an old man with a long grey beard took his place.

"Stand by, Water 7 portal." The voice was the same if a little deeper, pulling on a lever next to the door, a color wheel above the door changed color from dark purple to light blue.

The kid who was not a kid at the moment opened the door and Ace saw, not the Wastes as he was expecting, but some kind of coastal town, not unlike his own.

"Ah good day mayor."

"Is Wizard Whitebeard in?" An old man with blue hair and large lips asked, he looked calm but a shifting of his feet showed that he was in a hurry but didn't want to seem disrespectful.

"My master is not in at the moment but I may speak for him."

The mayor sighed. "How annoying. Well take this then." The mayor handed the grey bearded man an official looking envelop. "This is a message from the King, he requests that Whitebeard come to the palace at once, all witches and wizards have to report for duty by the end of the week. We are at war after all and everyone is ordered to do their part by the order of the King."

"I will give this to him the moment he steps back in."

With that last sentence the mayor said his goodbyes and left. After the door closed Ace got up and threw a couple more logs onto the fire, Zoro mumbling his appreciation.

The kid pulled off the hood of the cloak, revealing his face. He was just as young as Ace had thought, no older than thirteen at most. His blond hair was combed over his left eye leaving the other one open. Curiously his eyebrow was curved in a spiral, the way it was done left no doubt that it was natural, Ace didn't care though, Ussop had a larger nose than anyone Ace had ever meet but other than a few village idiots no one cared.

"Now who the hell are you gramps?"

Ace felt his eyebrow twitch. "Who you calling gramps, shrimp?"

The kid got angry and practically spewed fire as he spoke. "Well right now I'm staring at you old man who do you think I'm talking about."

Ace took a few calming breaths, he couldn't let this kid get to him. He was the elder after all and he would not lose his cool because some snot nose kid decided to be smart with him.

"I'm Ace, Zoro was kind enough to let me in last night."

"Oh so it's the marmino's fault then, no surprise."

"I did not! He just wandered in from the Wastes!" Zoro shouted, glaring at them both as if daring them to say differently.

"Wastes?" The kid got defensive real quick, his body tensed up as if getting ready for a fight or flight movement. "How do we know he isn't some wizard or something?"

"Do you really think I would let some wizard in? I'm not that stupid."

"Could have fooled me." The kid smirked and shook his head slowly.

"Oh I don't tempt me." Zoro threatened evilly.

Ace, while kind of having fun watching the banter between child and fire demon decided to break it up for now.

"And what's your name kid?" Ace interrupted.

The kid turned away from Zoro and smirked. "I'm Sanji, Marco's one and only apprentice."

"More like one and only annoyance that won't go away." Zoro said.

"What did you say moss-heat!?"

Ace sighed as they started once again. He looked around and noticed how it was sunny, then remembered the door.

Before he could ask though more knocking came.

"Teh." Zoro groused. "Capitol door."

Sanji just sighed and pulled his hood back up, disguising himself again before walking to the door, once again he pulled the lever and changed the color, this time to a green color.

Opening the door Ace's jaw dropped, the scenery outside had changed again. Now instead of a port town it was a wide city with large mechanical buildings and such.

A massager stood outside the door, his face set in a grimace.

"Is the Wizard Phoenix here?"

Sanji shook his head. "I'm sorry but my master isn't home."

"Give him this." The massager practically threw the small scroll at Sanji who managed to catch it gracefully. The massager's rat like face twisted even more. "By royal order all wizards and witches are to report for duty. No exceptions."

Sanji said a hasty goodbye and closed the door in the rude messenger's face. Ace who had crept closer to the door smirked at the look of offense on the rat man's face as the door slammed in his face.

"That door…is it magic?"

Sanji walked past him and put the scroll with the earlier envelope. "Yea but only Marco knows how it works. So don't bother asking."

Ace just walked to the door and opened it, he didn't walk through but stared at the people just walking by, all of them without a clue as to what just happened. Closing the door he pulled the lever and it went back to the purple color. Opening it he saw the Wastes around him, the early morning light giving into mist, it also seemed that the castle had come to a rest since it wasn't moving.

"Hey close the door! You're letting in a draft." Sanji called out, Ace huffed but did as he was told, and it was rather chilly out there after all.

Going back to his chair he saw Sanji moving around the kitchen area. "You hungry?" Ace asked and watched as Sanji picked up a piece of bread and pick at it. Moving over to one of the counters Ace saw a tray filled with uncooked bacon. "Don't you want some of this?"

Sanji's face fell. "Yea that would be nice unfortunately Marco's not in and Zoro won't let me cook on him."

Zoro snorted, "Like hell I'm going to be used as a cooking fire. I'm a demon, not a household spark."

Ace narrowed his eyes. "We'll see about that." He lifted the bacon tray and found himself a good frying pan. "Oi Sanji you cook?"

Sanji got up to see what Ace was up too, leaving the bread behind. "Yea I love cooking, but I can only do it when Marco's in the house."

Ace nodded. "Good because I tend to burn things."

"Oi numb nuts." Zoro called out. "Didn't you hear him? Marco's not in that means I don't have to listen to anyone and I repeat, I am not a cooking fire."

"Right now you are." Ace smirked and slammed the pan down on top of Zoro.

Ace ignored the indignity shouting from Zoro or the laughing mess that was Sanji.

"Just sit there like a good little fire and let me fry up this bacon, if you don't." Ace leaned forward and stared into the in-flamed eyes of the fire demon. "I will pour a bucket of cold water on you."

"You are a fucking evil person." Zoro mumbled but calmed down when he saw the truth in Ace's statement, the old bastard would do it too, maybe not a whole bucket but Ace would have no problem dropping some water on him.

"I know." Ace stated and then turned to the still laughing kid behind him. "Hey Sanji why don't you get a kennel as well? We can have some tea or coffee."

Sanji beamed at Ace, who was now his favorite person. "Tea sounds good."

"Oi no tea!" Zoro growled but was ignored. "Here's another curse for you, may all your bacon burn."

Ace smirked, "Maybe if I make it but I'm sure Sanji won't let that happen."

"Damn straight." Sanji said and brought over a kettle filled with water and took over the pan. At first he was cautious, he didn't doubt that Zoro wanted to burn him and would take the opportunity to do so if given the chance but with one glare from Ace Zoro just sighed and simmered down to a low burn.

"Wow." Sanji practically sparkled at Ace. "You're like Marco."

Before Ace could question him about that the door changed color on its own. They all looked over as it turned to the color black before opening from the outside.

"Ahhh shit." Ace breathed under his breath. Because of course- of course it was the handsome man that had rescued him before. Glossy black hair flowed down in the man's face- in Marco's face as he walked into the castle and closed the door behind him. Ace turned back around and stared into the cooking food, mind thinking fast as he came up with excuses and explanations to explain his presence.

But to know that the man from before had been Wizard Phoenix…Ace found that he felt insulted and slighted.

The wizard hadn't even tried to steal his heart and instead had let him go…

Was Ace really that undesirable?

Well no he definitely was. Ace looked down at his old hands and closed them into fists, he looked like he was over 70 and his personality wasn't any better, truly he wasn't surprised that Phoenix no Marco had passed him up.

"And who is this?" Marco stood right behind Ace causing him to tense up. Marco turned his attention to Zoro.

"Zoro how unexpected of you, are you being obedient today?" Marco teased softly.

Zoro sparked up, causing Sanji to curse and back away, he'd gotten a bit of bacon grease on his hand and went to the sink to wash it with cold water. Ace would have worried but the loud remarks of swearing at Zoro and his parentage dismissed his worry, Sanji was fine, his pride on the other hand was probably a little damaged.

"I am no being obedient!" Zoro growled and turned a deeper green. "This guy bullied me!"

"Really? Not many could do such a thing." Marco turned his attention back to Ace who tensed up even more before moving slowly to put more bacon on the pan.

Ace took a deep breath to steady himself before committing to his role.

"You can call me grandpa Ace." Ace turned to Marco with a big smile, he locked all his fears and doubts behind a wall in his mind. He couldn't give himself away after all and he had no idea how Marco would treat him. "I'm your new cleaning and maintence man, Zoro here hired me last night."

Marco's facial expression didn't change as he stared at him, before Ace could fidget or anything Marco walked forward until he was pressed next to Ace gently pushing him aside. "Allow me." He took the spatula from Ace's nerveless fingers and moved the bacon around. "Hand me two more slices of bacon and six eggs."

Ace turned to the basket that Sanji had put next to Zoro and slowly handed Marco the slices of bacon, once Marco had those on the pan he reached back towards Ace without looking. Ace gave him an egg and watched as Marco cracked the egg with one hand effortlessly and neatly, throwing the shells into Zoro's waiting mouth.

When Ace saw Marco reach back again he handed him another one until Marco had all six eggs cooking neatly in the pan next to the frying bacon. Zoro was licking his lips, a long tongue flaring out of his mouth as if searching for more shells to devour.

"Thank you."

Ace nodded wordlessly back, unable to voice anything for fear of his voice cracking like a pre-teen boy.

"So Zoro hired you hmmm?" Marco asked while not turning his gaze from the food.

Regardless of where the Wizard's gaze was Ace felt like he was pinned down by his gaze.

"Uh-yea. He's apparently tired of living in filth."

"Hmmmm. Sanji get the plates ready." Marco called out and brought the cooked food, pan and all, to the table.

"Wait a second your all going to eat food I technically cooked while I do all the work!" Zoro raged and grew in size, glaring at all of them. Sanji snickered at the table and stuck his tongue out at the fire demon and for some reason to Ace's amusement Zoro stuck his own long fire tongue back out in retaliation.

"Come on Ace let's eat!" Sanji called out as he rubbed some of the plates clean of dust and grit. Marco calmly pushed some books out of the way on the table with one hand, allowing some papers to flutter to the ground uncaringly. Ace grimaced, he had his work cut out for him if he was fully going to commit to his role. Especially if this was the way they treated their stuff.

Marco divided the food evenly between the three of them while Sanji poured the tea. Ace sat down at the table and absently pushed some crumbs to the ground as the others settled down. Sanji was only able to find three relatively clean silverware and gave one to Ace whose mouth twisted some as he tried to polish it with his hands.

"Bread Sanji?" Marco offered as he cut off a single slice from a loaf. Sanji nodded and took it, giving thanks before sipping his tea with a smile. "Ace?"

Ace lifted his eyes upward from his hands. "Oh? Yes thank you." He said softly and took the offered slice. Marco gave him a tiny smile and sliced up one for himself.

"Wow I don't remember the last time we had a nice meal." Sanji said. "This looks really good. I guess even the moss-heat can make something without burning it every once in a while."

"Hey watch it squirt!" Zoro hollered out from the other side of the room.

"Sanji. Zoro." Marco's voice cut through any future argument. Ace just stared and tried not to laugh as both the kid and demon gave the wizard pouting glares. Marco either didn't see it or just didn't care. "So my friends, enjoy."

They didn't need to be told twice, Sanji dug into the meal with the same fineness as Ace's brother. Which is to say- no manners whatsoever.

Maybe it was his older age or a lingering tiredness but Ace didn't feel as hungry as he usually would nor did he dig into the food like he use too like Sanji. Instead he cut up the egg with his spoon and slowly brought it up to his mouth to eat.

"By the way, what do you have in your pocket Ace?"

"Huh?" Ace's egg dropped back onto his plate and he looked up. Feeling confused he reached into his pocket and felt something. Pulling his hand back out he looked at the red piece of paper in his hand. "What is this?"

"Give it to me." Marco demanded and Ace seeing no reason to refuse reached and held it out. Marco meet him halfway across the table but before he could touch it the paper smoked and burst into flames.

They all exclaimed in shock except for Marco who was looking at his slightly burnt hand.

Ace drew his hand back and stared at the now burnt table.

"Scorch marks." Sanji breathed out, his eye had gone wide and a slight quiver of fear filled his voice. "Marco can you read it?"

Marco looked down and smirked. "Its old sorcery but yes I can."

"It's from him isn't it? The Puppet man." Sanji spat out and turned his face away.

Ace could feel the blood draining from his face, he'd brought that with him? Was it another curse or something much worse?

"He who swallowed a fallen star, oh heartless man who flies on flaming wings. Your heart will soon be mine." Marco read out loud as he stared at the picture the marks made on the table. "That's not good for the table." Reaching out with the same hand that had been burned he slowly moved it left to right, burning the marks away.

Both Ace and Sanji could feel the magic in the air as Marco removed the marks, it was heavy and seemed to pull the air right out from their lungs.

"The mark is gone but the spell is still there." Marco said before standing curtly. "Enjoy the rest of the meal." Walking to Zoro he dumped his breakfast into Zoro's waiting mouth. "Zoro move the castle 45 miles to the north and 60 miles east."

Zoro grumbled in agreement.

Marco walked to the staircase as the others watched him, before he was out of sight he peeked his head back down. "Also heat up some hot water for my bath."

"Like moving the castle such a long way isn't hard enough?!" Zoro complained.

Marco didn't answer as he was already gone.

Ace and Sanji just sat there for a second before Sanji turned suspicious eyes towards Ace.

"Are you sure you're not working for the Master of the Wastes?"

Ace's eyes narrowed. "I would never, _never _work for that man! He's the one who-" Suddenly Ace's lips sealed shut. He tried to talk around it but it was like someone or something was literally holding his lips closed. He could feel his anger mount, damn that pink bastard for doing this to him and damn him for somehow bringing something not good to this castle as well, using him like that.

"DAMN IT!" Ace shouted suddenly and brought his hands down, slamming against the table causing half the books and papers on top to fall to the ground, not to mention some of the plates as well. "If I ever see that pink, prissy bastard I will fucking cave his head in!"

Sanji had jumped back from the table with his plate firmly in his hands to save it from damage.

Ace sat back down on the table and dug into his food like a dog. "Sit back down and eat your food Sanji!"

"Sir!"

Later, after breakfast had been cleared away Ace began his new job. First by making Sanji help with stacking all the papers and books and other knick-knacks outside, they'd chosen the port town door because there was a nice breeze there and Ace wanted to air out the place as much as possible. What couldn't be moved out got cleared and covered with towels. After that Sanji had run outside to get away from Ace's wrath.

"I've had enough!" Ace snarled as he waved his broom around, gathering all the dust and other undesirables into a giant pile. "I'm tired of being treated like some useless geezer!" He glared down at the bugs that were crawling away from him. "Better run before I squish you!" He laughed meanly as he continued cleaning and potentially killing all the wildlife that had grown in the house. He also wiped down the furniture and the cupboards and washed the dishes.

Once all the dirt and other trash was out or in bags Ace got buckets of water to splash on the floor to mop and after that he got rags and cleaned the walls.

"Hey Ace! I'm dying over here! Hurry and bring some wood!" Zoro shouted as he hung on to the small branch, the only thing left in his fire pit.

Ace ignored him as he moved things around, he got a huge towel and put it near Zoro, continuing to ignore the death threats and pleads of mercy from the demon.

"Will you hold on, I need to clean up the ashes." Ace finally explained as he took some tongs and carefully picked up the piece of wood and put it over a bucket.

"Are you insane? I'm barely holding on here! I could die." Zoro whined as he gripped the piece of burnt wood with all his might.

"Just give me a minute."

Ace began to sweep all the ash into the blanket, it looked like the pit had never been cleared out, ever. Once he had all the ash in the blanket he tied it up and took it outside.

He didn't hear Zoro give a small shout as the branch broke and he fell into the bucket. Nor did Ace see Marco come into the room and scoop Zoro up and place him back in the pit with a small log. He had to help breath more flame into Zoro since he was barely burning at all at this point.

Ace came back inside and saw Zoro back in his proper place, glaring harshly at Ace and chowing angrily on a piece of wood.

"Oh? How did you get back there?" Ace asked and looked around the room but it was empty.

Zoro didn't reply, only munched harder on the wood.

Ace just shrugged and went back to work. Deciding that the downstairs was as good as it was going to get at the moment he took his mop and a bucket and moved towards the stairs.

Before he could move up it though Marco came walking down making Ace move backwards as quickly as he could before he could get run over.

Marco paused before passing him and spoke to him a freezing tone of voice. "In the future I would appreciate it if you stop tormenting my friend."

Ace glared at the man, confused as to what Marco meant.

"He's talking about me you idiot!" Zoro yelled. "If I die, Marco dies with me. So no leaving me without any wood!"

Ace shrugged his shoulders and gained a slightly sheepish look. He hadn't meant to cause harm, he truly thought Zoro would be alright for a moment or two while he got rid of all that ash that was cluttering the pit and making the room all dusty.

Before Ace could apologize Marco spoke.

"I'm sure you're not as stupid as you pretend you are so keep more aware of your surroundings, I won't be around all the time to bail you out." Marco deadpanned and walked past him towards the door where Sanji was peering inside with wide eyes.

It took Ace two seconds to process everything that was just said to him.

Then he got angry.

Like, really angry.

"You…" Ace rumbled, a low growl echoing out of his mouth, he felt…warm, it was like the very blood in his veins had been angered and now was heating his whole body up. "You…"

Marco turned around and if Ace wasn't seeing everything through a red filter he would have seen the wizard's eyes widen in shock and a little fear as he stared at Ace's wrathful figure. A haze was gathered over Ace's body, like a heat mirage.

"How dare you." Ace bite out and moved forward until he was right in front of Marco. At the moment Ace didn't care that Marco was a powerful Wizard nor did he care that he was technically his employer. All Ace knew was that Marco had insulted him and with his already insecure feelings it had made Ace's emotions boil over.

"You're the one who's let this whole place become some kind of pig sty. No wait. That's insulting to pigs." Ace sneered and pointed his finger towards Marco's chest almost touching him but not quite. "You're some powerful wizard or at least those are the rumors and yet you apparently breeze through without taking care of mundane chores like it is beneath you! I'm sorry that I overestimated Zoro, I won't do that again." Ace ignored Zoro's weak protest. He had bigger fish to scold. "I may be new to all this." Ace waved his other arm around, forgetting he had a dirty rag in his hand and that it narrowly missed hitting Marco in the face, not once but twice. "But I am not to be underestimated nor will I be looked down upon." Ace glared down at Marco's chest, staring at his slightly shaking hand as he keep his finger pointed at him. "I have cleaning to do. I'd appreciate it if you go elsewhere while I clean up your mess."

Ace didn't know it, didn't see it but his whole body seemed to de-aged the more he spoke, currently he now looked like he was in his late 50s-early 60s, still old but standing a lot straighter then he had been before. The ire inside of him made his black eyes shine as if hiding a blazing fire, while his face flushed pink with fury, making his freckles which had all but disappeared shine back out against his face.

The haze was barely there and was all but gone by the time he'd finished his lecture on the stunned wizard.

Marco hadn't moved an inch through Ace's reprimand, it was as if his body was frozen as he stared down at Ace. Astonishment and something akin to wonder shinning on his face, as did Sanji and Zoro to a lesser degree.

Ace's breath was coming out in little huffs but as the silence continued Ace could feel his temper cooling off and embarrassment take over.

"Well?" Ace questioned, his blush intensifying the longer Marco stared at him. Ace's arm was still raised between them and deciding that he'd already done enough damage for Marco to justify turning him into a toad a little more disrespect probably wouldn't make anything worse.

With a kind of trepidation and adrenaline rushing throughout his body Ace pushed his arm forward and instead of poking Marco in the chest with his bony finger Ace spread his hand until his whole palm was spread against Marco's firm chest and pushed confidently, something he wasn't really feeling inside anymore, the anger burning out once he remembered just who it was that he'd been yelling at.

Oh my god…Ace's mind was racing and yet not a single thought passed.

"Aren't you leaving?" Ace asked, his voice sounded very far away to his ears but that was probably the adrenaline rush he was only just now getting off. He finally looked up at Marco's face, too late to see the positive emotions that had just been there, which Marco had quickly wiped away once he noticed Ace turning to look him in the eye.

Marco's eyes peered down at him, eye lids cast down halfway giving him a bored uninterested expression.

Marco suddenly spun on his heel and walked towards the door bypassing a jaw dropped Sanji and switched the dial to the black one.

Ace couldn't see where it lead too since it was all dark outside now, like the darkest part of night. His arm was still out stretched as if wanting to call the Wizard back. Once he realized how awkward he looked standing there like that his dropped his arm to his side like it was a hot coal.

"I'll be back later…try not to burn the house down." Marco let out one last parting shot before vanishing through the door and slamming it behind him, the dial automatically resetting itself.

"Burn…? Who the hell does he think he is?!" Ace seethed and threw down the rag, which he'd still been holding in his other hand onto the ground with a small bang.

"Sanji!" Ace barked out.

"Yes sir!" Sanji squealed and ran forward until he was standing right in front of him, back straight and hand up in salute.

"What are you…? You know what, I don't want to know." Ace huffed. "I'm going to be cleaning the upstairs soon. If you don't want me to throw anything out when I get to your room make sure you hide it real good or put it someplace secure with a note."

Sanji squeaked again, something that Zoro didn't even tease him about since he was too busy himself gasping at the backbone that Ace had been hiding from them.

"No wait! Do my room last!" Sanji yelled out and ran towards his room, leaving a trail of dust behind him and slight scorch marks on the ground in his haste.

"Heh." Ace smirked. "I think these outbursts of mine are giving me a little energy." With more spring in his step Ace bounced up the stairs, somewhere he hadn't been yet.

"…That boy will either be our ruin or our salvation." Zoro said out loud to an empty room. "Either way…it won't be boring."

When Ace got to the second landing he had to stop, his eyes widen at the amount of dirt and trash not to mention the large spiders that called the corridor home.

"This is disgusting." Ace flinched as a large hairy spider dangled off a single thread of web in front of him.

Shaking his head Ace walked around it and pushed open the first door he saw, it took a moment since the door seemed to be stuck along its frame but with one good push it opened.

"Oh ewwww!" Ace wrinkled his face as his nose was infiltrated by many smells.

It was a bathroom, Ace had hoped that they would at least keep this room tidy but he stood corrected- it was a bathroom that has never been cleaned before in its long life.

The room was small, there was only a large claw foot tub, a small sink and a toilet with one lone window against the wall that was closed.

The tub was filled with dirty water and everywhere Ace looked there was splatters of liquid or slime of many different colors. Turning his head he looked at the toilet and shuddered. Apparently no one in this family knew how to flush a toilet.

He stared at all the vials of different color liquids that lined the rim of the tub and the small cabinet on the wall. He remembered Marco's parting smirk and resolved to mix things up a bit, he doubted it would be harmful and Marco needed to be taken down a peg or two. Ace smirked, yes…he'd clean Marco's smelly bathroom but a little prank wouldn't be remiss.

Squaring is shoulders bravely Ace tracked into the room towards the window, the smell was beginning to give him a headache and some fresh air would do wonders.

It took more than a few shoves to get the window open but once he did he couldn't help but stick his head out.

"Oh wow." Ace said, awed at the view in front of him. The castle was moving right now, its large body moving with an ease that was…well- magical.

"Hey Zoro! Zoro!" Ace shouted and sprinted back to the stairs. "Are you the one who's moving the castle?" He looked over the railing at the sulking fire.

"Of course I am!" Zoro snapped. "It's not like anyone else does any work around here." Seeing Ace's glare he amended quickly. "Except you of course."

"Well anyway- this is amazing! I didn't know you could do something like this, you're a first class fire demon." Ace winked. "I like your spark." Then he sprinted back upstairs, hoping to find a better place to see the view.

"…He likes my spark…" Zoro mumbled before smirking widely. "He likes my spark!" Suddenly he glowed a very pinkish green and the castle picked up his pace, eating off his feeling of happiness and giving the magic a boost in power.

Ace basically sprinted up the stairs, bypassing the smelly bathroom and going up even higher, he moved past another open door and ignored Sanji whose arms were full of stuff and shouting, "Not ready, not ready!" from inside the room.

Moving to another door he opened it and almost shouted in joy, it opened up to a balcony. Ace walked out and leaned against the railing. All around him was beautiful country, rolling hills of green with trees and animals running around below and a clear blue sky with few clouds completed the picture.

Ace turned to look in the direction that the castle was headed and let out a whoosh of stunned air, a large lake in the distance winked at him, its clear water reflected the sun perfectly causing the water to shine like the sun was underneath the water.

Now the picture of complete beauty was complete.

"Pretty isn't it?" Sanji said, seemingly done hiding his crap and now joined Ace in staring at the surrounding wilderness.

"That's the Grand Line Lake, we haven't been there in a while so it's nice to see it's as pretty as last time."

"It's…awe inspiring." Ace agreed then paused as an odd sound echoed around. Turning his attention to below the railing and towards the right of the balcony he saw a large stick sticking out of one of the holes that dotted the castle. "Wait…don't tell me that's-!"

Ace sighed but moved towards it. "Sanji give me a hand." Sanji looked confused but helped him pull up the stick which turned out not to be a stick, but Ace already guessed that, but was instead the scarecrow that he'd meet on his first night in the Wastes. The scarecrow just stood there for a second before hopping along the castle until it was standing a little ways away from them and bouncing up and down, as if happy to have Ace find him and rescue him from being upside down, again.

"I swear that this scarecrow is stalking me." Ace said. "He's been following me since I entered the Wastes."

"…Are you sure you're not a witch of some kind?" Sanji asked confused.

Ace snorted but couldn't help but tease the kid. "Yea I'm a witch, the horrible kind that attracts oddballs and cleans."

Once the castle reached the lakeside it stopped and settled down, Ace at this point found that he was just done with cleaning the hallways and rooms and decided to do laundry instead. It had been a few days since he arrived here and he was making some good progress, Marco hadn't been back in all that time but Ace told himself that the wizard could take care of himself and not to worry needlessly.

After staring into the room where everyone, that being Marco and Sanji, apparently threw their smelly clothes in Ace rolled his shoulders back. "Okay then…on to battle."

It had taken most the day to clean the laundry and then sanitize the room but once all the laundry was washed Ace took it out in baskets with Sanji's help and with the scarecrow, who had thus been named Veggiehead, holding the line of rope taunt Ace was able to pin the wet clothing to the line to dry.

After that Ace decided they all could use a good break from the endless cleaning and they brought out chairs and snacks. Sitting on the water's edge Ace relaxed for the first time in a while, he could feel like the years were melting off of him as he watched the skyline turn colors as the day progressed down. Sanji snacked on a cookie next to him and watched in amazement as Veggiehead hopped around with the laundry line still attached to him in order to find the best position where the wind would dry the clothing faster.

"I think he likes doing the laundry." Sanji remarked, nibbling on the cookie.

Ace looked over at the scarecrow and smiled. "He's an odd one that's for sure."

"I think he's some kind of demon but Zoro doesn't seem to mind him so I'm sure he's of a weaker level."

"Hmm maybe. If he is a demon then he's a good one." Ace spoke sleepily, the nice mountain air breezing wonderfully by. "He led me here after all and I doubt a mean spirit would have done such a thing. I'm…happy I think." Ace felt a little surprised at that revelation, he hadn't realized that he'd even been unhappy before but now as he relaxed here on the lakeside with Sanji sitting next to him and an enchanted castle behind him with a powerful but also nice fire demon and a scarecrow/demon doing laundry and an annoying and powerful and irritating and beautiful wizard that liked to frustrate him for kicks…Ace found he was very happy where he was.

Now if only he wasn't an eighty year old man he was sure everything would be much more prefect.

Marco flew through the air and stared down at the bombed town, houses and shops burned down without remorse, no one down there would be able to survive in such a blaze.

Shaking his head he flew harder onward, he could see the Goa's flying ships as well as the Capitol's ships dead ahead. They looked like they were ready to collide in battle. One side, who knows who at this point, sent a bunch of bombs to the ground.

Marco guessed that they didn't care that there was nothing left to bomb, no people, and no homes left. It was all a show of machoism at this point, all ego and flare.

Marco flew forward and smashed into the ship causing it to veer off course and collide with another ship. Marco ignored the shouting coming from the docks and flew towards the other ships coming in the other direction and sent a flare of blue tinted flame to their motors causing them to stall.

He was about to fly away when creatures flew out of the ship, Marco stared hard at them in disbelief and sadness, he flew straight at them and collide with them causing them to scatter and fall. Some of them gave chase but Marco had enough fighting for one night, he was going home where he could think about this newest development.

With hardly no power at all Marco flew up into the sky and vanished, causing the monsters behind him to scream in uncontrollable rage, and the battle between the airships continued.

There was no victor that night.

Marco walked slowly into the castle, it was dark out so everyone else looked to be asleep. Which was a good thing because Marco didn't feel up to explaining why he looked like a bird with a human head.

"Oi you okay? You smell like shit." Zoro asked worriedly as Marco sat down in the chair in front of him, exhausted beyond measure. He winched in pain as he slowly turned back into his human body.

"You shouldn't do that anymore, soon you won't be able to turn back. You know that without…_that _you can't control the change."

Marco sighed and waved away Zoro's concern. "It's fine…I'll be alright."

Zoro snorted and reached out and lifted a log that sat nearby. "Whatever you say boss. Hey isn't this cool? Ace left these for me so I won't burn out in the night."

Marco didn't respond only lifted his eyebrow in amusement. "I fought my own kind today."

"Oh?"

"Yes…Witches and Wizards that turned themselves into monsters on the King's order."

Zoro was silent for a moment then- "They're going to wish they hadn't done that. They'll never be human again." He said sadly. "Hey aren't you suppose to report to the King as well?"

"By the time this idiotic war is over they won't remember they were ever human to begin with." Marco agreed and got up. "Draw me some hot water."

Zoro sighed. "You and your goddamn baths. Seriously you'd think a man of your age would learn long ago that sex is far better than masturbation."

Marco just stared him down before Zoro shuddered and nodded his consent. "Fine, fine. Whatever, it's not like I'm the one cleaning up your mess at least."

Marco deadpanned for a second before realizing what Zoro was saying. "Oi!"

Zoro snickered and pointed his hand towards a curtained off area. "He's been cleaning for days on end. This place is nicer than before you created it."

Marco walked forward and pushed the curtain away, peering inside where Ace was sleeping on the couch.

The young man was sleeping on his side, his black hair halo-ed around his head looked soft and inviting, as if begging for someone to run their fingers through the silky locks while his youthful face was relaxed in sleep.

Marco stared down at the stunning looking man for a moment, ignoring Zoro's snickering in the background before slowly backing away and heading upstairs.

"Have fun!" Zoro called out and laughed as Marco flipped him off behind his back.

Ace sat up as he was startled awake by the sound of the water pipes going full blast.

"Hey Zoro is Marco back?" Ace peered through his curtain and stared at the sulking fire.

"Yea and he's using up all the hot water again, that selfish bastard." Zoro grumbled before scarfing down his last log.

Ace snorted but smiled anyhow. It was good that Marco was back, he could tell that Sanji had missed the man and while Ace didn't know him much he found he kind of missed the man's presence too.

Even if their last meeting hadn't gone too well.

Getting up and ready for the day Ace decided they were going to go to the market and get some fresh food. While the food here was good and all Ace didn't doubt that they were spelled to keep from going spoiled…which meant that the food itself wasn't all that fresh and could have been sitting around for ages.

Kicking Sanji awake and bidding Zoro a quick goodbye Ace walked out into the port town. He couldn't help it, he loved looking at the ocean and this port was very lovely in that it had a great view of the sea.

"I hate leeks." Sanji sulked as he watched Ace browse through the vegetables.

"Who doesn't?" Ace said back and got some carrots instead.

"I hate carrots."

Ace just kicked him in the butt and moved on to the next stall.

While he was looking at the choice fish on sale, and he really, really wanted the large tuna one but he doubted that Zoro's fire pit could fit it a commotion down the street caught his attention.

"A ship has returned! It's on fire!"

Shouts and the sound of people running made Ace move closer towards the port, making sure to grab Sanji's hand so they wouldn't get separated since the street was getting more crowded by the second.

Ace stared at the leisurely sinking ship as it moved slowly into the harbor, he didn't see anyone on board but he hoped that it was the smokes fault that there was no movement, not that there wasn't anybody left alive.

Ace stared at it before he felt like he was being watched, he twitched and slowly turned his head to the left and tensed his body and slowly moved back until he was pressed into the building behind him.

"It's the Puppet asshole's minion." He whispered at Sanji when it looked like the boy was about to question him. Sanji's eyes widen and he seemed to freeze on the spot.

"Where?" He whispered, fear in his voice as he stared up trustingly at Ace.

Ace felt his heart clench at the look in the boy's eyes. Only his brother had ever looked at him like that and it brought out Ace's protective streak.

"To the left but don't look, we don't want to draw attention to ourselves." Ace whispered back and tightened the hold he had on the boy's hand.

Ace watched out of the corner of his eye until the puppet left. "I wonder why no one noticed it."

That's when a bomb went off in the harbor waters.

Screams echoed in Ace's ears as he stared dumbly at the water before looking up, an enemy airship sailed along the sky, luckily it didn't seem to want to burn the town but instead install a message, a we can kill you if we wanted message.

Ace practically ran all the way back to the door leading to the castle.

Ace felt like he had aged again, he hadn't realized he wasn't in pain or hunched over until he was once again doing so. His body had progressed backwards again.

Making his way slowly to the chair in front of Zoro Ace slumped down. He waved away Sanji's concerned questions and just sat there for a moment.

A scream came from upstairs, causing the whole castle to shudder. Ace jumped up from the chair ignoring his aching back.

Marco came running down the stairs in a small towel and nothing else, his hands were gripping his hair tightly.

His hair…was a bright orange color.

"Oops." Ace murmured. "Maybe I shouldn't have mixed up his shampoo vials in the bath."

Marco saw them and practically ran them over as he began to shout in Ace's face.

"Look what you did to me you bastard!" Marco's hands grabbed hard at his hair as he shoved his head towards Ace's face. "It's hideous!"

"It's not like you have a lot of hair to begin with." Ace murmured and flinched at the glare that Marco sent him, like the Wizard wanted nothing more than to cut him up and throw his scattered limbs out the window.

"This is all your fault." Marco moaned and dramatically fell into Ace's chair. "I give up…tis' better to die right now then to continue on with this pitiful existence." Marco leaned forward until he was hunched over, his face smashed into his big hands as he whimpered in shocked repulsion.

Ace stared at him in disbelief and no little horror as the shadows around them began to grow into twisted shapes of monsters found in only the darkest nightmares.

It was then that Marco's hair began to change color once more, not that the man noticed in his little bitch fit of despair.

The outrageous orange began to lighten until Marco's hair was a beautiful blond color, the color of the sun…or in this case…

"Pineapple." Ace mumbled and winched when Marco let out a particularly loud howl of despair.

"Hey you should look at it now." Ace decided to try consoling the man whose weird manner was really freaking Ace out. "The color's changed again, it really nice now…pretty even. Much better than before."

Marco didn't seem to hear him, just continued to moan pathetically and it was seriously getting on Ace's nerves not to mention that the guy's magic was causing mayhem in the background with his depressing shadows and the chilled, frosted air.

Trying once more to get through Marco's odd behavior Ace reached out to touch his shoulder and shuddered and pulled his hand back when he touched something that was definitely not skin.

Marco was leaking…well more like oozing a gross green slime, it was like he was melting.

He wasn't really trying to kill himself…was he? Ace felt anger and fear overtake his emotions and he snapped.

"Okay you know what!" Ace shouted loudly and backed away, his face twisted as anger and sorrow filled him. "You think you have it bad mister asshole?! I've never once considered in my entire life that I was anything other than average! Average in looks, average in intelligence, average in everything! And here you are! A powerful wizard! With friends like Zoro who's a magical badass fire demon and Sanji who's an awesome kid that deserves more attention from you then he gets! And your beautiful damn it! Your body is like a goddamn temple and us lowly beings can only wish to worship it! Your personality…well that could use some work but I'm sure that underneath that narcissistic attitude of yours you are actually a really great guy! But-!" Ace was flustered now and he could feel his eyes tingle as tears threatened to burst out in rivers. He held back for now but he knew that the dam was going to break any second now. "You act like none of that matters! I can't stand that! I- I need to leave!"

Ace rushed out of the castle, changing the dail to purple before banging the door shut behind him, he didn't want to see anyone's reactions to his little passionate speech.

"Oh god…what the fuck did I just say?!" Ace said and ran to the shoreline and stood there, he didn't even notice the rain that was pouring down on him hard, soaking him in a matter of seconds. He just stood there staring out at the grey waters and grey sky and…cried.

After about a minute Ace felt the rain stop hitting him, he turned his head upward and saw that Veggiehead was standing a step behind him with an umbrella in his hand, covering Ace.

Ace stared at Veggiehead and smiled waterily. "Thank you Veggie."

How a scarecrow could hold an umbrella was beyond him…actually, the burning question on Ace's mind was where the hell did he get the umbrella in the first place?

Ace shook his head to dispel the questions circling in his head. They didn't matter and the answers would probably warp his already fragile reality.

"I'm being weak aren't I?" Ace questioned and smiled as the scarecrow tilted side by side in a universal sign of 'no'.

"Don't lie." Ace chuckled his tears finally drying up, it seemed like he just really needed a good cry. Which didn't surprise him actually, after all the shit he'd been through and just suppressing his feelings, itt was a nice relief actually. "How'd you become so kind?" Veggie head just swayed as if embarrassed by Ace's question.

Suddenly Sanji came running towards him, his face all scrunched in a panic.

"Ace come quick! Marco's in real trouble!" Sanji yanked on Ace's hand to hurry him along.

Ace sighed but since he was calmer now he went along back inside. He bite back a laughed as he saw Zoro standing on his little fire legs holding a piece of wood high above him as Marco oozed all over the floor and hearth.

"Ace! Help! Marco's gone crazy! I'm going to die at this rate! Die by snot!" Zoro wailed as the ooze got closer and closer to him.

Ace smiled and pushed his wet hair out of his face and rolled up his sleeves.

"Is he going to die?" Sanji asked shakily.

"No, the bastard's just throwing a tantrum. Help me out here Sanji."

Ace walked over and lifted Marco up enough that he was leaning heavily on him while Sanji tried to take some of his weight on his other side.

"Come on now you big baby, don't make us take all of your heavy ass weight."

In retaliation Marco sagged even more against Ace's grip, almost causing Ace to let go since all that slime was making it even harder to hold onto him, along with his bare skin.

"Damnit…asshole." Ace whined and with Sanji's help dragged him towards the stairs. "Come on Sanji we're going to throw this monkey into the bath to get off all this slime."

"Ace…you seem different?" Sanji questioned as he tried to help on his end. Sadly it wasn't much since the kid was so small but Ace could feel that he was holding on his own, he got the feeling that Marco was subtly helping along. Geez- the guy couldn't make up his mind whether to be a hindrance or helpful.

Ace paused in thought and hiked Marco's arm more firmly around his shoulder. "I think…I've finally got over something, maybe it was fear or something else but whatever it was…I'm good now." Ace smiled at the stunned boy. "It may also have something to do with how much blackmail material I have now on our resident Wizard. Seriously…slime?"

With Sanji giggles trailing in the air they ascended the stairs. Going slowly at each step so they didn't trip on any of the ooze that was still spilling out of Marco.

"Hey Sanji why don't you go ahead and get the hot water running? Then we can throw him in without waiting."

Sanji nodded and sprinted ahead, Ace sighed as Marco began to lean the whole of his tall body against him. It was only then…that Ace realized that Marco had only been clad in a small towel the entire time.

It was at that very moment that the wet, squishy towel fell to the ground making a loud plop noise.

"Ooohhh'kay." Ace breathed out and tilted his eyes upward, it was one thing to ogle the guy's abs and another thing to admire his…family jewels. Ace was a gentleman above all, or at least that's what he'd like to think of himself as, and he wouldn't stoop so low as to ogle over the wizard when he was in this kind of state of mind.

Besides the slime was a seriously turn off, it was getting everywhere and it was only then that Ace realized that he would have to re-mop everything.

_Son-of-a-_ Ace sighed loudly as he finally got to the top of the stairs where steam was already drifting out of the open bathroom door.

"I hope you enjoy hot baths dickhead because I'm going to throw you into one." Ace mumbled to Marco who still hadn't made a single sound since his earlier rant. "Wait…did you pass out? Geeze no wonder your no help."

Walking into the cramped bathroom, although since Ace's earlier cleaning spree it was much more cleaner and less cramped then before, he practically threw Marco into the deep claw foot tub making water splash everywhere.

"Great, more mess for me." Ace sighed before flicking off some of the slime off his shoulders. "Now Sanji I'm not sure how comfortable Marco would feel having me help bathe him but if you think you need the help I'll stay."

Sanji looked conflicted, on one hand two was better than one and they would have Marco cleaned up in no time but Ace was right…Marco might not like having the old man touching him while he was vulnerable. It was different for Sanji, he was a kid for one and he'd been around for a lot longer so Marco felt somewhat safe with him.

Sanji figured that Ace was still in the unknown category.

"I think…I got this." Sanji nodded and Ace smiled at the look of determination on his face.

"Okay then I'll leave you too it. I'm going to go clean up the mess that the idiot left. If you need me though just holler alright?"

Ace backed out of the room but not before shooting a glare at the man in the tub whose butt was sticking straight up in the air. It seemed that when Ace had thrown him in the tub he had landed in an awkward position and hadn't fixed himself.

Now blushing brightly Ace slammed the door shut and turned around to stare at the trails of slim on the ground.

"Great…now where did I put that damn mop?"

A little later in the day Ace finally finished cleaning and making sure that Zoro wasn't too traumatized after almost being drowned in slime. He looked over his own cloths and decided that taking his own bath wouldn't hurt.

Stripping off his slimed clothing Ace leaned against the tub wall, he'd already cleaned all the slime out of the tub and floor earlier when he and Sanji had helped Marco to his room and Ace left Sanji to once again attend the wizard by himself.

He tried not to look at his body as he washed all the dirt and slime off himself mechanically. If he had bothered to actually look at himself though he would have been surprised to see that his body had de-aged and was actually quite fit for an older man, his abs were slowly coming back and his skin was clearing up too.

He would also have been horrified to find that he also resembled his grandfather by a lot.

His usual outfit of brown trousers and white shirt would need to be washed again so he would have to use his second outfit which…was a little different but likeable enough.

So he changed into a pair of black pants that cut off at knees and a butter yellow shirt. He debated whether to put on his suspenders since these pants really didn't need them but figured that they were enough of an accessory that hopefully people wouldn't be blinded by his shirt.

After that he decided to check up on Marco. Now that he had the time to calm down he was feeling a bit bad about the whole scenario. Because ultimately it had been Ace's fault that Marco had had a breakdown about his looks. If Ace hadn't messed with the guy's cleaning potions then maybe he wouldn't have thrown a fit like that.

Although personally Ace thought that the blond was a lot nicer looking then the previous black hair.

With a small cup of warm milk Ace knocked on Marco's door a few times before announcing that he was coming inside.

The room was- well eccentric would be putting it nicely. Ace decided that to save his remaining sanity that he would ignore all the trinkets and odd objects and made his way towards the bed where Marco was resting.

Ace took a second to look at the man, actually really look at him.

What he saw kind of surprised him and yet didn't at the same time.

A young man laid on that bed, Marco was probably only half a decade older then him, his skin was a light tan colored and looked like he dozed in the sun frequently, much darker then Ace's own pale freckled skin.

His tuff of hair on the top of his head was spread gracefully on the fluffy pillow, now that Ace had a moment to stare at it. It looked like the sun had literally been captured in the locks, it was that bright and shiny.

He had thick lips too. Ace thought dazedly as he finally took in the full effect of Marco's face. He'd been so angry and tired and just plain busy with everything that had happened to him he never really got a chance to actually appreciate the beauty of the guy.

Not that his personality had help any. Ace smirked lightly at that thought and walked towards the bed, good looking or not Ace knew that falling for this man would probably only end up with him hurt.

He also decided that he would discard his earlier rant to the man when he had been high on emotions, hopefully Marco wouldn't remember any of that given his state of mind at the time.

"Marco? I brought you some warm milk, do you want it now?" Ace asked softly and felt a little disappointed when Marco slowly shook his head without opening his eyes. "I'll just leave it here then." Ace placed the cup on the nearby bedside table. "Make sure to drink it before it gets cold." He turned around to leave but stopped when Marco finally spoke.

"Ace? Ace please wait."

Ace turned back around and shuffled closer until he was right next to the bed.

"Did you need help drinking your milk?"

Marco grimaced but shook his head again, Ace was at a lost and decided to sit down on a small stool that was near the bed. He would wait it out of Marco needed a minute to say what he needed to say.

One of the charms that decorated the room began to spin heavily and let off a soft chime noise.

Marco's eyelids open and he let out a small gasp. "The Puppeteer is hunting me…he's trying to find my castle."

Ace's eyes widened in remembrance. "That's right! I saw one of those creepy puppet things in the harbor earlier, it looked like it was trying to find something."

Marco's eyelids drooped until his usual look of apathy was back. "I'm such a coward…all I do is run and hide. All this magic and flair…all this apathy is just to keep people away. I can't stand it. I can't stand how afraid I am!" Marco's words were almost a hiss at the end and Ace's eyes felt like they were going to pop out of his skull. But he didn't mention anything about Marco's unusual admittance. It was brave of him to admit all of this, not that Ace would tell him that and right now he felt humbled by the wizard.

This was only going to make him more likable now…damn it.

"Marco…why is that…_man _after you." Ace spat the word 'man' like it was a particular bad cuss word.

"It was…well the Puppeteer of the Waste had once been quiet beautiful and nice, he had a charisma that few could resist so I pursued him. Then I realized that he wasn't. That is- he wasn't beautiful or nice or good, it was all a trap to lure in powerful wizards and witches so I ran away."

Ace sighed and rolled his eyes, still it wasn't Marco's fault if he got caught up in the Puppet master's plot and charm. Although how that man had charm was something that Ace was skeptical about, maybe it had been a spell? Because the witch-man that Ace had meet hadn't been charming one bit.

"Soon I'll have to report to the King…as both Wizard Phoenix and Wizard Whitebeard."

"How many aliases do you have?" Ace asked baffled at how many personas the wizard had.

"As many as I need to stay hidden and keep my freedom." Marco countered back before sighing and leaning more firmly into the pillows. "I've no choice in the matter."

"Why don't you just refuse to go?"

Marco's hand came from under the covers and pointed to a piece of paper along the back wall, it was littered with knives and darks. "You see that? It's the oath I took when I graduated from the Magic Academy."

"There's a Magic Academy?" Ace asked but his question was waved away by Marco. Ace huffed, annoyed but let it go. He could always ask him about it later. Instead he thought hard about Marco's predicament. "You know what? I think you should go, to the palace I mean and see the King."

"What?" Marco's eyes shown with their disbelief.

"Give that guy a piece of your mind and tell him how worthless this whole stupid war really is."

"You've obviously never meet these kind of people."

"You'd be surprised." Ace mumbled, now it was his turn to wave away Marco's curiosity at the wizard's questioning face. "It doesn't matter. What does matter is that you should stick up for yourself and give those morons a good thumping on the head. Besides a King should want to hear all of his subjects concerns, that's what being a leader entitles after all."

Marco snickered and then went silent then suddenly he sprung up. His covers flying all over the place and his hair flopping in a graceful chaotic mess. "I've got it! Why don't you go to the palace for me!"

Ace's jaw dropped in disbelief. "Huh? W-what are hell are you on about now?"

"Just say that your Phoenix's father and that your son is such a coward that he's too afraid to show his face." Marco decided to ignore the small "I wouldn't be lying if I told him that." That Ace breathed out under his breath.

"Maybe then Lord Law will finally give up on me." Marco finished with a wide smile.

"Who's Lord Law?"

Ace's question was once again ignored. At this point it took all of Ace's restraint not to hit the damned happy wizard.

Sanji and Zoro both stared with wide eyes as Ace snapped his suspenders and twirled the cain that VeggieHead had given him. He was ready as he'd ever be if he was really going to do this. With determination Ace stared hard at Marco who was only dressed in a large fluffy blanket and slippers.

"Before you go I have something for you." Marco said before shuffling his feet- actually shuffling his feet-! In embarrassment before walking forward and bringing something out of the folds of his blanket.

It was a hat.

A bright orange cowboy styled hat.

Ace stared at it before chuckling. "Thank you." He took the hat and placed it gently on his head, making sure it fit properly before nodding to all of them.

"Well I'm off then…try not to get into any trouble while I'm gone yea?" Ace directed his attention Sanji and Zoro who began to blush slightly but they both nodded in agreement.

"I'll be following behind you but in disguise so keep a look out okay?" Marco said, a smidge of worry on his face. Even if this whole plan had been his own idea Marco didn't seem too confident in it. Ace was feeling a mixture of relief, worry and anger at the man's lack of faith.

"It'll all be fine Marco." He reassured the wizard before smiling at him. "I think I can pull off grouchy, stubborn old man quiet well don't you?"

Marco chuckled, "I have no doubt in your acting skill Ace. Here, one more thing."

Marco suddenly got up and personal in Ace's space causing the young/old man to stifle a gasp. "Take this." It was a silver ring with a stone the same shade of red as his beaded necklace. "This will assure your safe return back to us."

Ace was then pushed out of the door. Hearing the door slam behind him Ace shrugged his shoulders and pushed his hat more firmly down on his head. "Why do I get the feeling that this isn't going to work out like he'd planned?"

Shrugging his odd feelings over the matter off Ace straighten his stance and began to walk towards the royal palace.

He was now in the City someplace he had once thought he'd never see before and he didn't even have the time to look around properly since he was on a mission.

"Oh well, maybe later Marco can give us a day off and we can make a day out of it." With the thought of Sanji, Marco and himself enjoying a day off and just relaxing and exploring warming him, what if they could figure out how to make Zoro portable so he could come as well?, he picked up the pace.

Not realizing that once again he was shedding years off his body, his hair was now a mixture of silver and black strains and his wrinkles were almost non-existent now except around his eyes and mouth and they were more like laugh lines then wrinkles.

Still he couldn't help but let his eyes wander at the marvels around him. While he may live with a wizard, a little wizard's student, a fire demon with more sassy then sense and an enchanted scarecrow that may or may not have a crush on him- Ace may be naïve but he wasn't stupid- he didn't get to see that much magic or wonder.

The City had both it looked like, steam and/or magic run vehicles lined the roads and people were walking in the latest fashions with twinkling trinkets and mechanical odds and ends.

It truly was interesting and Ace really wanted to explore…damn duties and promises and good looking assholes.

"I wonder what kind of disguise Marco will be under." Ace wondered and looked around. There was a flock of ravens and Ace considered if for a moment before shaking his head. "I doubt he'd hide as a crow, too dull."

After a few more blocks Ace came out into a square and spotted a bunch of pigeons pecking along the ground. He smirked at the thought of Marco disguises as one of them. "He's too flamboyant for that and to be inseparable from the flock would have driven him to distraction."

Hearing someone laugh very loudly he spied a very handsome young man flirting with a beautiful woman and doing it very affectively if the heavily blushing girl was to go by.

Ace dully deadpanned, "That could be him."

Finally making it to the courtyard of the palace he stopped for a second. He still had a long way to go and he'd been walking for what felt like hours already.

Ace scowled but continued on without a hitch in his step, he liked to think that the cain that VeggieHead had given him had something to do with that. It truly was a nice piece of woodwork.

He quickly passed by a crowd that were surrounding something, Ace looked over and was impressed, it looked like some kind of single/double seated airplane and people were getting on and ridding them, although they didn't seem to go very high, probably for cautionary reasons. These citizens didn't look like seasoned pilots at all.

Ace didn't notice the small…dog (?) that started to follow him until it was practically dogging his footsteps.

It came up to his knees and had brown fur and the funniest pink hat on its head and oddly enough had a blue nose.

Ace kept walking forward determining and tried to ignore the dog but it keep pace with him.

"…Marco?" Ace whispered to the dog feeling very foolish but he couldn't help but get an odd feeling from the animal.

The dog coughed and Ace took that as agreement. He looked over the animal critically. "You couldn't chose something less conspicuous then some odd dog?"

The dog just coughed harshly and placed its head closer to the ground.

Ace felt kind of bad, maybe Marco was still feeling off from earlier and this was the only shape he could change into right now.

"Never mind, it's a very clever disguise. Very unique but cute." Ace amended then blushed when he realized he'd called the dog, Marco- cute.

"Well well well…look who we have here. The boring little brat-boy from that ugly shop."

Ace felt a chill go down his spin and turned his head towards the side. "Puppet Master of the Wastes." He addressed as coldly as he could. "What the hell are you doing here?"

The witch-man was incased in a small carriage that was being held up by two of this creepy puppets. Ace could see him lounging on a bunch of cushions and feathers, the man smirked at Ace as if he could sense his animosity.

"I was invited. Heh that little brat Law finally saw reason and contacted me personally to ask for my help in this little fun war of his."

"You're sick." Ace spat. "And if you're as powerful as you say then why don't you lift this curse that you put on me?!"

"Sorry brat my powers lie with casting curses not breaking them. By the way I want to thank you for delivering my little love note to Marco."

Ace just snorted in disbelief.

"How is he by the way? That lovely bird-man?"

"He's being a big baby as usual and working me to the bone as his cleaning man."

Ace tried not to visibly tense when the witch-man laughed annoyingly and loudly.

"How utterly delightful. So what brings an old bag of bones like yourself here of all places, I doubt you have any kind of business with the King."

"I'm job hunting. I'm sick of working for ungrateful wizards and figured that the palace would be a good place to work since they employee so many people anyway. I'd rather clean for a King then a Wizard any day." Ace lied as convincingly as he could…meaning he made sure he was staring straight ahead and not towards the man he was trying to lie too.

Everyone always told him he had too much of an expressive face to be able to lie convincingly so he was taking that to heart, he couldn't screw up now. There was too much riding on him completing the task Marco had given him.

"Well this has been fine…bye-bye old man." Dolfamingo smirked before urging his carriage faster one.

"Wait!" Ace shouted and watched in disbelief as the stupid snarky, asshole of a man-witch gained ground on him.

"Damn it…" Ace looked down at the dog Marco. "If I didn't have to worry about you getting discovered I would have smashed that bastard into the ground."

They both arrived at the bottom of the steps soon after that, after Dolfamingo passed the front guards his puppets suddenly collapsed upon themselves causing his carriage to fall to the ground with him in it.

Ace tried really hard to hide his smirk but he doubted he was successful, it didn't help that dog Marco began to snigger in a distinctively human manner.

"Teh that stupid brat put up a barrier up, well no matter." Dolfamingo grunted as got out of his carriage and stood tall. "I'll make it up these pathetic stairs and show that upstart true power."

Ace felt a bit doubtful for a second as he stared up at the godforsaken stairs. It looked like a small mountain to him and he could feel the memories of how his body had felt and acted when he had first made the long trek from his home town all the way to Marco's castle.

Marco the dog coughed and didn't falter as it began to slowly climb the steps and Ace suddenly felt very stupid and foolish.

"Of course you're right Marco." Ace whispered and gained a look of confidence on his face and in his step. "We can do this, it's just a few steps. We'll just act casual about it. I may be old but I've still got some strength in me yet."

He quickly overtook Dolfamingo which surprised him but a small coughing from behind him had him looking back.

Dog Marco was having trouble going up the steps, he'd managed a few of them but it seemed his legs had begun to wobble.

"Why couldn't you have transformed into something useful?" Ace sighed and went back to pick him up. He realized that he wouldn't be able to pick him up and hold his cain at the same time. He looked at his cain and thought about leaving it behind but it was a gift from a dear friend and he'd be damned before he left something of his behind him.

Placing the cain gently in his mouth so that his teeth clenched down on it to keep it in place he reached down and picked up the dog.

Grunting with how heavy his burden now was he started up the stairs again.

He didn't really notice how he once again overtook Dolfamingo who was struggling. Dolfamingo's body may have looked fit before but it became clear that most of his cosmetics was magic since the longer he spent going up the stairs and without his magic the drain it had on him. Long age lines over took his face and his back hunched in on itself so that his height which had been very impressive before was cut in half. Sweat glisten in small rivers from his brow to his chin before falling onto the stairs and his clothing, completely drenching him in foul smells.

Ace didn't notice this of course, not until Dolfamingo started to whine out loud to him.

"I…can't."

Ace barely turned around, a vicious little part of him took pleasure from seeing the high and mighty wizard that had cursed him brought down a few pegs. But the majority of his feelings that weren't taken over by that part of him felt only pity and no little disgust.

Stopping for a second he gently put the dog down and slackened his teeth to take out the cain so he can talk.

"What was that?" Ace taunted without turning around, he knew how rude and annoying it would be for the Puppet Master if he didn't, not to mention how disrespectful it was, he relished it in fact. "Did you say you'd turn me back now? I'm an old man after all…if I was younger I would probably be able to help you."

"You-little-bastard." Dolfamingo huffed out through clenched teeth. "I-told-you-I-can't-break-the-curse!"

"Too bad. Maybe if you go off and study right now I'd be more incline to help you." Ace said before picking up the dog and placing the cain back between his teeth and continued his climb.

Dolfamingo wheezed in breath as he stared after the young/old man. "Bastard! Where-does-he-get-all-that-energy-?"

About halfway up Ace decided he needed a break and once more gently placed the dog on the ground along with the cain. He turned back to gauge how the Dolfamingo was doing and flinched in surprise.

The Puppet Master of the Wastes wasn't doing so well. He was quite a ways further back from Ace and practically crawling up the stairs at this point.

"Why don't you give up? You're killing yourself." Ace called out.

"I've waited years to be invited back here!" Dolfamingo panted breathlessly. "Ever since that upstart brat of mine left me to this cushion job and banished me to the Wastes!"

Ace snorted and shook his head. He felt his breath come back and his limbs felt warm, like a warm fire had been lit. He once again started his journey and was surprised when he found himself at the top in no time at all. Setting the dog down he grabbed his cain and winched at the teeth marks he had left in the wood, he could always sand it down later but he disliked that he had left that kind of mark on the gift.

He leaned a little on his cain since he was on top to check if it could still hold his weight, luck seemed to be on his side because despite the marks the wood held strong. He looked back and lifted one arm in the air in a wave. "Come on then! You're almost there! Where's your spirit?" He encouraged Dolfamingo who looked like he was going to die right there on the steps. He had half a mind to go help the ill wizard but decided against it. Who knew if the wizard decided to curse him again if he got too close?

"Shut-up." Dolfamingo huffed before sliding on the ground once he keeled his way to the top. He looked like he'd aged 50 years since the bottom of the stairs.

"Why do you look so much older?"

Instead of answering the wizard just snarled at him. Ace- in a moment of absolute pity silently gave the tired and downtrodden wizard his cain to use. The suddenly old wizard needed it a lot more than he did at the moment.

A Stewart finally showed up, semi-breaking the tension that was building like an ominous cloud between the two arrivals.

Ace could hear someone announce their arrival, luckily the Puppet Master of the Wastes was too tired to really pay attention other than commenting that his name sounded familiar.

Ace felt like he could throttle Marco after being announced as Gentleman Whitebeard.

His hair wasn't even that white anymore.

They were directed to a room where a single chair was situated in the middle, Ace thought it looked a bit off but Dolfamingo practically pranced to it calling dibs. Ace was amused for all of three seconds before he noticed Marco trotting off through an open archway.

"Marco! Marco get back here!" Ace whispered furiously before running after him. He pulled up when he saw an attendant waiting for him. "This way sir. Lord Law will see you now."

Ace didn't know it but the moment he walked away from the room he'd been in Dolfamingo was already having a powerful spell cast on him, his cries went unheard by all.

Walking through a hallway they finally made it too an open aired room, it was a beautiful room with many exotic plants and a glass ceiling. Ace tried not to gape in awe as he stared around him, it was truly a very special room, a greenhouse for exotic and big plants. After a second Ace finally noticed that the attendant had left him and there was someone else in the room.

Sitting in a plush chair was a young man. He looked to be a few years older than Ace's real age. He had fancy robes on and had a small goatee on his chin, his hair was a dark blue while his eyes burned gold. Ace felt fear slide up his spin but managed to suppress a shiver. He knew instinctively that he couldn't show any weaknesses to this man, not now, probably not ever.

"So your Marco's father." It wasn't a question but Ace decided to answer it anyway.

"Yes. I am Mr. Whitebeard." Ace privately thought that being addressed as Mr. Phoenix would have been cooler but he knew that Marco must have had a reason for choosing his Whitebeard's persona for this.

"You must be tired. Why don't you sit down?" The man directed to the only other chair around. Ace silently walked to it and sat down, never taking his eyes off the man.

"I'm Lord Law, otherwise known as Wizard Trafalgar, the King's head Warlock. You probably haven't heard much about me." Ace shook his head. "No matter, that's actually preferable."

Ace's eyes wandered for a second and finally narrowed down at the dog at the man's feet.

"Wait a sec-that's not your dog is it?" Ace asked.

"He's name's Chopper and he's not really a dog, more of a chimera that I made in my spare time. He's my errand pet, I had him escort you here."

Ace sagged in his seat, if that not-dog wasn't Marco then where was that bastard of a Wizard?!

"Now then, I take it that Marco won't be joining us for this little meeting." Once again, not a question.

"Nope." Ace said. "He's such a lazy son. It takes all of my strength to get him to pick up his towels in the bathroom, getting him here would have been nigh-impossible." Ace couldn't help it, he was pissed off that Marco wasn't here with him like he said he would. "He sent me in his place. Me! An old feeble man, I would think that the King would find his services completely useless."

Law's eyes narrowed and a lazy smirk descended on his lips. "That's too bad. I remember working side-by-side with Marco when we went to the academy together, although that was in the early years. He had been so dedicated once upon a time and was thinking about becoming a student to a powerful Wizard named…well you wouldn't know of him." Leaning forward Law's smirk got broader. "Then a demon stole his heart and he vanished from everyone's eyes and used his powers for purely selfish reasons. Mr. Whitebeard…that man is far too dangerous to be allowed to roam as he wishes anymore, with his powers and without his heart he is a liability to this country and court."

"If he stays as selfish as he is now then I'm afraid his fate will be like the Puppet Master of the Wastes." Law raised his hand in a lazy move. "Send him in." He called out and Ace turned his head in the direction that the door was.

An old man- much older than him by several decades was slowly escorted into the room, most of his hair was gone and the little of it he had was turned a chalk white. He was also short- short as in his spine was curved on itself. His skin was saggy and paper thin…but that pink coat.

"Dolfamingo?!" Ace shouted and made to stand but a sharp look from Law made him hesitate. "What the hell happened to him?"

"I've just restored him to his rightful age and seal all of his magic away. He was once a very powerful and noble wizard who worked for the King and Court but soon he fell to a demon of malice and greed and it slowly consumed him body and soul. It was after the death of his brother, an old teacher of mine that Dolfamingo began to lose what little sanity he had retained, I had been under the apprenticeship of them both when tragedy struck us. I remained loyal though which isn't something that this former puppeteer could say. Our country can no longer afford to turn a blind eye to these loathsome witches and wizards that aren't loyal and use their magic for personal selfish reasons. So Mr. Whitebeard…if Marco comes here and reports directly to me and vows to use his magic for the good of this country then he will be allowed to keep his magic…otherwise he will be bound just as this wretch was and thrown in the dungeon."

Ace sat there in silence for all of two seconds after hearing what the Court Wizard said…then he exploded.

Literally.

Red/yellow hot flames burned up and down his arms as he glared at Law. He ignored the frantic shouts of the previously hidden attendants and guards.

"That's enough!" Ace roared and his flames licked the air around him, keeping everyone at bay. "Now I see why Marco was so afraid to come meet you, it's a trap. You lure people here like some sick spider and strip them of everything that they hold dear. Magic isn't some hobby or skill, it's a way of life for these people. Marco would never be this heartless-" Ace was so impassioned that he failed to see that his own curse reversed itself, he stood proud and tall, a youth in his prim with his chiseled muscles and cheeks still slightly pudgy with baby fat. His eyes burned with his no longer hidden fire and his cheeks glowed red with his passion. His black hair waved about in the wake of his awakened power.

"Marco may be cowardly, selfish and at times he's hard to understand but his attentions are good. He just wants what everyone wants- to be free. Marco won't come here because he has no need of _your help._ He can fix his own demon with his own two hands. I'm certain of it…no I'd stake my own life on it."

Ace's fire still burned but it was now a lower simmer, licking along barely a half a centimeter above his own flesh.

And he still hadn't really noticed it, oh sure his brain had processed what had happened but it hadn't impacted him yet.

He'd be sure to have a nice long freak out later.

"Now I understand." Law smirked and leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs. "You're in love with him aren't you, little boy. Completely and utter moon-eyed with that heartless wizard."

Ace flinched and suddenly he was aged again, not that he'd noticed anything had changed. He hadn't expected that, he had thought he knew his own heart pretty well so while he had certain thoughts about Marco he'd never once entertained the notion of him…loving Marco.

"Marco…?" Dolfamingo turned his wizened head at Ace and made a grab at his shirt. "Did you say Marco is coming here? I want his heart- it belongs to me." Dolfamingo whined and feel to his knees.

"Hey stop that you're upsetting yourself." Ace said calmly. He gently held Dolfamingo's hands together. "Listen here, Marco's not coming."

He couldn't help but use kid gloves with the old wizard now, famous and evil Puppet Master he may have been before but right now he was just a very old and weak man who looked like he couldn't glare at a kitten. Much less overpower or harm anyone.

It was a pitiful sight indeed and Ace shuddered at the thought of this happening to Marco.

"Oh I think he will." Law said and Ace turned around to glare at him, he'd almost forgotten about the man who seriously pissed him off. "You see _Mr. Whitebeard _I now know his weakness."

Above them one of those flying machines descended to the grounds next to the green house and a man disembarked before walking through a door, he walked with a purpose and Ace's eyes widened when he heard Law address him as 'Your Majesty'

The King? What was he doing here? Ace thought this had been just a trap by that wicked power sealing wizard.

"As you were." The King spoke. "How are you fairing Law?"

"I'm doing well your majesty." Law said. "My guest and I were just having a little chat about his…son. The Wizard I was telling you about earlier today."

"Oh?" The King turned around to look at Ace, who couldn't help but blush at the attention. "Thank you for coming on such short notice but I've decided to not use magic for this war."

Law straightened in his chair and shot the King a dry look. "Is that correct your majesty? I had no idea you felt that way."

"Yes well we have used your magic to shield this castle from the enemy's bombs and now instead of us being hit my citizens pay the price as their own homes are bombed and their lives are taken."

"Your well-spoken today your majesty." Law smirked and before anything else could be said a loud voice rang through the room from the door.

"Law!" A man shouted and Ace turned towards this new person and rightfully chocked on his own spit.

For another visual of the King was walking towards them, he looked every inch like the man in front of him did.

"Law I've made a new plan. I know that this is the one! We're going to beat the enemy into the ground!" He finally seemed to notice the others in the room. "Wow Law! This is the best double you've made of me yet. Keep up the good work!" The other King, who Ace was beginning to suspect was the real one, strolled out with a smile.

There was a dead silence for a moment or two after that.

"Marco."

"Law."

"That's a rather weak disguise Marco, didn't our classes teach you better than that?"

"I'm not trying to hide anymore Law." And suddenly it _was _Marco standing right beside Ace, the disguise seemed to melt right off of him. "I've did as the oath stated and came as I was summoned. Now _father_ and I will be leaving."

"I don't think so." Law smirked and raised his fingers and did a strange twist.

"**Room"**

The air around them seemed to shimmer a haze of blue and it was like they'd been transported into a vast ocean. The air was heavy and Ace could barely feel anything, let alone Dolfamingo clinging to his pants or the arm that Marco had wrapped around his shoulders the moment Law had spoken his spell.

"Whatever you do don't allow him to touch you." Marco whispered, a fierceness had overtaken his usual lazy features.

"Don't worry Marco, I have no plans on touching your little…_friend, _no I have something else in mind." Law smirked, still comfortable on his chair and seemingly ignoring the large sword that was leaning against it. Ace was glad that the wizard decided to not use that against them because Ace didn't have any weapons on hand and he doubted that Marco had any either. Not to mention that the other ex-wizard in the room that couldn't have helped him. Probably wouldn't have even if Dolfamingo still had his magic.

"It's time to show your daddy here-" Law laughed cruelly at his little joke while both Ace and Marco scolded. "-what you really are Marco. Just what kind of monster you've become."

"That's rich coming from the Puppet Master's student!" Marco growled and Law seemed to finally lose his patience with them as magic danced around them in the form of small lights.

They kind of resembled bears but only a little, mostly they were frightening.

Ace could feel the strain in Marco's arm muscles. Whatever was happening it only seemed to affect Marco and not himself.

Whatever spell it was finally took affect because suddenly Marco was transforming. Ace looked with horror and surprise as Marco's hands and feet suddenly became deadly talons and feathers suddenly sprouted all over Marco's exposed skin, while large and slightly deformed wings sprouted from his back.

"Marco stop!" Ace shouted and saw out of the corner of his eyes that Law now had his sword out and looked about ready to swing it and cut off their heads. "It's some kind of trap! Snap out of it!" Ace reached out with his free hand and slapped Marco hard across the face, hoping to break the spell that had taken over him.

Marco's eyes sharpened from the haze that had taken over them and suddenly they were soaring, leaving Law behind them as Marco's wings spread out and flapped a few times to gain altitude. Ace could hear a low thwack sound from below them and he knew that Law had thrown his sword at where they'd just been not two seconds ago. He shivered at the thought of being skewered by that large sword.

And then suddenly they were out of the spell as they crashed through the glass of the greenhouse, Ace flinched but luckily none of the shards made contact with his skin. Marco's feathers and talons disappeared and soon enough so did his wings, they landed gently on the small hover craft that Marco had arrived in.

"Hold onto me." Marco ordered and turned it on with a quick flick of his finger. Ace could already hear the soldiers rallying behind them. Getting in formation to attack and capture them.

At least Ace hoped that they had plans to capture and didn't have any kill on sight orders. Ace didn't think his old man's heart could take being shot at with killing intent.

As they ascended into the air Ace could feel something ram into his back, looking backwards he was shocked to see Chopper sitting calmly in the lap of Dolfamingo.

"Ace sit up here." Ace shifted his gaze back up front at Marco's command and carefully made his way to the front seat, he told himself he wasn't jealous that Marco was standing straight up without any trouble at all as the little plane flew through the air. He was even standing to the side of the chair as he drove single handed with the little wheel.

"Did you have to bring them along as well?" Marco's voice wasn't angry, instead to Ace's surprise there was mirth and bemusement instead.

"Hmm, well I guess it's too late to throw them off?" Ace teased and smiled as Marco laughed. He didn't know what was making Marco more relaxed but he didn't deny he liked the results.

He just wished that it came at a better time. In the middle of a cat-and-mouse chase where they were the mouse wasn't the best place to relax.

"I can't believe that you work for Law." Ace accused the dog who just smiled at him.

Wait…smiled?

Before Ace could even begin to unravel that puzzle Marco's hands grabbed his own and guided them to the wheel.

"Ace I want you to take the wheel, I'm going to direct them away from you while you head back to the castle."

"Wait you want me to fly this thing? By myself!?" Ace shouted and almost whimpered when Marco let go of the wheel and Ace had to do a quick correction or they would all have tumbled off while the plane did a loop dee loop.

"How the heck am I suppose to fly this thing all the way home!?" Ace shouted as Marco laughed with a big shit eating grin on his face.

"The ring." Marco said as if that explained everything. Ace just stared at him with the most deadpanned expression that he could muster in the circumstances.

"The ring I gave you earlier will guide you home, here let me." Marco reached out and gently gripped Ace's fingers that were holding with dear life to the wheel. "If you think of Zoro and the castle a light will guide you."

Ace blushed lightly as Marco breathed on his neck as he explained, it wasn't the time or the most appropriate place but he couldn't help it.

"Home…" Ace mumbled and watched with delight as the small stone suddenly glowed and shot a beam of light in front of him, he twisted his hand this way and that and it still pointed in the same direction.

"Yes, home." Marco said softly. "Just keep following that light and it will guide you home, hopefully you get there before dark because while I'm sure your flying skills are passible in the daylight I don't want you crashing the moment the sun goes down."

"Oi stuff it!" Ace groused and pouted when Marco just pushed his hat down over his head until it covered his eyes. "Hey! If you don't want me to crash this thing I need my eyes dumbass! Why the heck am I doing this anyway, if you were going to come here along then why did you make me come too?"

"Knowing you would be there gave me the courage to show up. Law can be a sadistic creep when he wants to be and I wouldn't want to be in a room alone with him, the rumors of his exploits are worse than mine, although him taking the royal court job has tamed them down a bit. I was in real trouble back there when I got caught up in his spell…thank you by the way."

"Just be safe." Ace said without looking back. He could practically feel the smirk on Marco's face so it was probably a good thing he couldn't see it.

He might just start another fire and this time the only things that could be set aflame were himself and the stowaways.

Marco jumped off the plane and made to engage the other pilots in combat…well more like he teased them with parlous tricks and pissed them off enough that they went after him and forgot about anyone else they were chasing.

"Well that was fun." Law smirked and took a large sip out of the brandy he'd poured after Marco and his little band of misfits had evaded him. "I haven't had that much fun in ages. But if that upstart thinks he can avoid me well…" Law's smirk grew as a servant came and handed him a heavy folder. "He's in for a surprise."

Law cracked open the folder and stared intently at the photos pinned to the front page.

"D's…" Law mumbled, "I knew that you and your family would be nothing but trouble Garp."

In other points of the country Marco's aliases were put on a capture bounty. Marines and soldiers and bounty hunters alike converged to his doors and broke them down, only to be left confused when they found nothing but empty and abandoned buildings. After all…Marco's home was in the Wastes and it was only to some very clever magic that his door connected to other places. Now that they were all counter promised…what will become of them now?

At another location around roughly the same time was a man and his grandson, well one of his grandsons anyway.

"Gramps when is Ace coming home?" Luffy moaned and slumped against a barrel. "Usopp said he never saw Ace leave town so he must still be in town right?"

"Your friend isn't all seeing Luffy." Garp said and flicked out his fishing pole again after pulling another large 10 foot fish into the already large pile next to him.

Luffy on the other hand had yet to catch a single thing. All. Afternoon.

"Take that back!" Luffy shouted, "Usopp said his eyes are like a hawk and nothing can escape from his all-seeing gaze! He even saw me sneak your snack that you've been saving for yourself! How can he not be all seeing if he knew about that!?"

"…So it was _you _who ate my chocolate éclair that I've been saving for this trip."

"…opps."

"…"

"…"

"GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE BRAT AND TAKE YOUR PUNISHMENT LIKE A MAN!"

"AHHHH NOOOO! ACE HURRY AND COME BACK TO SAVE ME!"

It was raining.

"This sucks." Ace whined and chose not to acknowledge the answering "Whining brat." From his stowaway.

He would be the better person in this challenge, or at least the less petty.

Besides the only reason that Doffy wasn't whining himself was because he had his large feather jacket that he burrowed himself in to keep away the rain. Ace decided to call the old man this because it was less of a mouthful then the whole name and it fit his older person now and without magic all Doffy could do now was glare at him.

Looking down he was surprised to see a break in the clouds, squinting he noticed a town a little ways up ahead.

"Wait is that-? It is, my home town." Ace said and got a curious questioningly noise from Chopper. "Where I lived before with my brother and gramps before I came to live with Marco. We should almost be at the Wastes now…" Ace then realized that he was talking civilly to the animal that had tricked him earlier and scoffed. "Don't try to be cute you weird animal, I'm still not going to trust you."

Chopper made a wounded sound and buried its head back in Doffy's coat where it had been staying dry.

Luckily for Ace the weather got progressively better the closer they got back to the castle, which was a good thing because he could already feel his nose start to drip with snot with how wet and miserable he was feeling.

Marco would pay for this, mark his words.

At least he had his hat, it had keep most of the rain from splashing in his face and gave him some visibility in the rain while he flew. Because of that he had managed to avoid to incidents with a pack of flying geese.

Geese…were the scariest and traumatizing animal he'd ever encountered before and he was sure that his two passengers…_stowaways_ felt the same way considering they had been traumatized just as he had been when they had all converged on them in an air attack.

He'd much rather deal with the King's guards and their guns then deal with a pack of flying rats again.

Ace perked up when they finally got past his town and into the Wastes, he didn't know how much further they had to go but hopefully Zoro had some kind of mental homing beacon or something and was close by.

It seemed that Ace wasn't too far from the mark because not five minutes later he spotted the castle walking slowly in his direction.

"The castle is coming to meet us! Go Zoro!" Ace shouted gleefully.

Sanji who had been keeping watch shouted when he caught sight of them. "Ace over here!" He was leaning against the railing of their little balcony.

Ace then realized something very significant…he didn't know how to land the goddamn plane.

"Sanji!" Ace panicked and jerked the wheel back a bit but they were already too close to divert. "I don't know how to land this thing! Run!"

Two seconds later they crashed through a section of the wall right into the living area. Ace threw his hands up to block the pieces of brick and wood that went flying around them, he'd rather not get his head smashed in and become a bloody smear against the wall.

He could hear Zoro shouting out curses and threats but instead of it angering him it brought out a smile to Ace's face.

It was good to be home.

"Ace!" Sanji shouted as he ran down the stairs into the pile of rumble that had become their living room. "Are you okay?"

Ace could hear a gasp and a "Who the heck are you guys!?" so it was safe to say that Sanji had seen Doffy and Chopper.

"I'm here Sanji." Ace called out and stood up carefully, luckily enough nothing seemed to be broken and except for a small cut on his forearm he hadn't suffered any other damage from the crash landing.

"Ace!" Sanji shouted and tackle hugged him as Ace slid out of the pile. "I missed you." Sanji mumbled into Ace's stomach. Ace felt his heart clench at the admission from the young boy.

Sanji really did remind him of Luffy when his brother was younger. And just like Luffy, Sanji was placed dearly into his heart.

"I missed you as well, thanks for coming to meet us." Ace smiled down at the clinging boy. "We're home."

Later that night everyone had gone to bed exhausted, of course only after a quick cleaning. Ace may have become something of a clean freak after working for Marco, the state of the castle _from before _still gave him nightmares.

Ace had graciously given up his couch to Doffy to sleep on, after all while the man may have once been a very evil and corrupt wizard nowadays he was nothing but an old and feeble man. If Ace had to guess he would think that Doffy was now older then he was, physically at least.

The manners that Ace had once gotten beat into him by Gramps had shown themselves at that moment but strangely he didn't regret it.

After what happened back at the palace Ace felt more at peace with himself. It could have been a number of things that had triggered this. Standing up to a very powerful and dangerous wizard, taking in the former Puppet Master of the Wastes and treating him like an elder he was, having Marco smile at him like he had…having fucking fire shoot out of his body.

Like he said, it could have been a number of things that triggered the peace he now felt, the balance that had settled in him.

So he'd scrounged up an old mattress that Sanji had remembered them having and fell asleep on the floor, exhausted after everything that had happened in the last day…no, it was more than that. He was exhausted from the past few weeks to be honest.

It was even later that night, or earlier morning if you had to be accurate about it- that Marco finally made it back home.

The door softly creaked open and the only one to greet Marco was a sleepy eyed Zoro.

"Mmmhh…Marco?" Zoro called lowly but when he didn't get any kind of response he instantly became more alert.

Marco was half invisible to anyone without a magic eye. He was walking slowly across the room without seeming to notice any of the wreckage.

He was still in a half-deformed state.

"This is bad." Zoro stated with worry. "You've gone too far this time."

But once again it was like Marco couldn't- wouldn't hear him. He just continued to slowly make his way across the room and up the stairs, not sparing a glance to anyone or anything.

Ace who had been sleeping deeply was woken up by the soft creaking of the stairs. He groggily got up to his feet but the moment a door closed shut loudly from upstairs he startled awake and left his sleepiness behind.

"Marco?" Ace whispered, wondering if Marco was really back or if he'd just waken up from a realistic dream.

Looking down Ace noticed wet foot prints leading from the front door to the stairs, they passed right next to his temporary bed spot.

The only thing was…they weren't human feet. Instead they were shaped like a birds, not to mention that they were huge, easily twice the length of his palm.

There was also a feather pooled in one of the claw prints.

The moment he reached out and gently touched the feather it disintegrated.

Now very awake and more than a little frightened, not that he'd admit it to anyone- even himself, he put his boots on and left his shirt behind, he didn't have time to get fully dressed. Not while something could be happening to Marco.

He did snag his hat though.

Priorities.

He was going to snag a candle as well because of how dark it was but hesitated.

What if?

He reached out his hand in front of him and pointed one finger up while curling the rest. Closing his eyes he concentrated hard on the feeling inside of him that had once been a glowing ember but was now a low baked fire.

Opening his eyes he was pleased and astonished that the tip of his finger had turned into a flame.

It wasn't that his finger was on fire…he'd literally turned into fire.

"I'll have a nice long and possibly traumatizing freak-out later, right now I've got to find that idiot wizard and see what he's done now to himself."

Ace walked up the stairs, taking note of the mess of wet prints and discarded feathers.

As Ace looked over the mess it was becoming clear to him that the mess wasn't water…it was much worse than that.

It kind of reminded Ace a little bit of the slime that Marco had seeped out in that whole hair fiasco, only it wasn't green in color but a blackish red.

On the second floor Ace didn't even question it when he knew exactly where to go.

The door at the end of the hall, it wasn't even that the claw prints lead to it that cemented this fact.

It was just instinct, Ace _knew_ that Marco was behind that door.

Nor did he question it when the moment he entered the room it had suddenly turned into a long underground tunnel.

He lived with _a wizard._ Enough said.

Though he had to admit that the fork in the tunnels did make him pause for a few seconds before choosing the one that seemed to be breathing.

It was the wind of course.

_Of course it was…nothing that big could be down here…right?_

Ace walked for a few meters before a bundle of feathers blocked his path. It was breathing loudly, IN and OUT…IN and OUT.

"Marco? Is that you?" Ace got close enough to touch but refined because who knew how Marco would react to anything touching him in this state. "Are you hurt? Please tell me what's happening to you."

"…Go away." Marco's voice was warped, it sounded like he was speaking through rock and gravel.

"No." Ace sternly stated. "I'm not going to go anywhere, I'm going to stay right here and help you break this spell you are under."

Marco shifted and stood up on his feet…claws. His face was still turned away and covered in feathers but from the small glimpse that Ace managed to get when he moved around it was already deformed into something else.

Ace didn't care, it would take a lot to scare him and some giant monster bird didn't even register on the list.

No it wasn't Marco's form that scared him, it was his attitude.

"Y-you can't e-even break your o-own curse." Marco taunted through shapeless lips. His stutter grew the more his teeth did and Ace caught another glimpse of Marco's face when he shifted again and the feathers moved around. It was still changing, warping until nothing human remained behind.

"You don't understand." Ace knew he was getting angry with how helpless he felt but he couldn't help it. If there is one thing in the world that he hated worse of all it was the feeling of being helpless for himself and the people he cared about.

"I love you." Ace blurted out and didn't even blush when he said it. There was no time for hesitated or any uncertainty. Not while Marco was cracking down to this stupid curse of his.

"…It's too late." Marco stated and suddenly he was flying down the tunnel, leaving Ace to gape in disbelief and horror.

"NO!" Ace shouted after him before everything went dark.

Ace shot up from his bed his lips mouthing a name but no same came out.

It took him a few seconds to get his mind reorganized and process what the hell had just happened. The sounds of the water pipes drew his attention upstairs.

"Zoro is Marco home?" Ace turned towards the fire pit and got up to get ready for the day.

"Yea, he just got in. He looks terrible, you better figure out how to break the spell on us fast because Marco is running out of time."

"Before he becomes a monster."

It wasn't a question.

"I can't tell you the details of the curse, you know better."

Ace found himself getting annoyed and made his way over to the pit to stare down Zoro.

"You know what I heard? Law said that a demon stole Marco's heart. Tell me…what do you know about that?"

Zoro smirked, "I'm terribly sorry but that would be confidential between said demon and his wizard."

"What if I poured a bucket of water on you, I'm sure you'd sing answers then."

"If you kill me Marco dies too!" Zoro snarled and fizzed a little and they had a good stare off going for a few minutes until a particularly loud snore from Doffy ruined the mood.

Getting dressed and vaguely noticing that his clothes fit a lot better than they had the past few weeks and his muscle tone was back, although not as defined as before. He still felt older though and still had wrinkles along his face and hands so the curse wasn't broken.

But maybe…diminished?

He walked outside and stared out at the sun which was only just then peeking over the horizon. Then turned his attention to the bathroom window which was open and bellowing steam.

A rhythmic thumping nearby told him that Veggie was making his way over to him.

"Hey Veg." Ace greeted the scarecrow tiredly. "This isn't going to be easy…but I'd rather it be done before Marco gets done preening himself."

After going back and waking everyone else up to help Ace got to work.

The sun was high in the sky by the time they got a rope around the plane and a pulley system kind of in the works.

"Okay you got a good grip Sanji?" Ace hollered out and got an affirmative answer back. Sanji and Veg were on pulling duty, with Sanji gripping the middle and Veg tied to the rope just behind him. Chopper wasn't so much helping as he was running in circles around them, although after a stern look from Veggie head, which Ace didn't think was possible from someone whose face never changed, Chopper picked up the tail end of the rope with his teeth.

Doffy…was watching all of this from the comfort of a nice lounge chair and blanket.

Ass.

But an old and feeble bodied ass so Ace didn't do more then give him some hot tea and sit him down to stop all the annoying comments that came from that side of the peanut gallery.

He was still inside and clearing a few of the loose bricks and debris from the large hole he'd made the day before with his crash landing. He was also there to push the damned thing out of their home.

"Okay on my mark! One – Two – Three!" Ace shouted and started to push as hard as he could at the nose of the plane and he could hear the loud curses from Sanji as the kid pulled on the rope with all his strength.

Because he was a good adult…he'd be sure to get a bar of soap to wash that brat's mouth out. He didn't care that Sanji probably learned most of those words from listening to him when he was on his cleaning spree of hell.

It was the principle of the matter. Gramps had done the same thing to him and Luffy whenever he caught them mouthing off words that they'd heard from the sailors at the docks.

Although that particular punishment had also included a harsh beating and orders to run the whole circumference of the town three times.

Ace was more leant then that, he'd just start with the soap and only include the other punishments if he caught him swearing again like that.

See? He was a good big brother type.

The plane wasn't moving.

"Damn it all to-!" Ace groaned and stepped back and kicked the thing, hard. "Get the heck out of my home!"

He would have set it on fire but he was sure that there was still gas in that thing and he'd rather not blow everyone up.

The plane made a horrible screeching noise and then started up again. Its wings started to flutter fast as it tried to go forward but because the boys were still pulling at it from behind it went backwards.

Straight for them actually.

"AHHHH!" Sanji screamed and let go of the rope when he saw the plane coming towards him with its wings flutter fast enough to cut off his head. He booked it down the hill and as Ace watched and didn't even try to control his laughter as he saw the plane collide with a large rock and die a sputtering death.

He hadn't needed to worry, Veg had been between the plane and the kid and somehow Ace knew that Veg wouldn't allow anything to harm Sanji.

Somehow Chopper had ended up right in the lap of Doffy, getting good pets as he stared at the chaos around him.

"Well then, maybe if we put up a curtain or something Marco wouldn't even know anything was different." Ace mused and ignored Zoro's snort of amusement.

After a quick cleaning spree which Ace was gracious enough to exclude Sanji from helping, the poor boy was still shaken up from earlier, he placed a large curtain over the large hole and called it done.

Sanji was once again picking a fight with Zoro, this time it was apparently about Sanji's fear of planes. Ace sighed as the yelling match got louder and he knew that if Zoro had a body both he and Sanji would be having a physically brawl instead of just a verbal one.

"Come on guys, its lunch time." Ace sighed and placed the ready-made food on the table. Right now he was spoon feeding Doffy whose hands had started shaking and he'd dropped his spoon twice before Ace put down his own food, an unheard of event in and all on itself, and helped him instead.

Zoro was simmering low on his log and kept an eye on Doffy while the man himself was staring intently at him right back.

"Here comes another spoonful." Ace prompt and Doffy turned back and obediently opened his mouth.

"Don't feed him!" Zoro whispered loudly, "That's the Puppet Master of the Wastes you know!"

"Oh he's alright." Ace commented and spooned another mouthful onto the spoon.

"He keeps staring at me…it's creeping me out." Zoro admitted and ignored Sanji's snickering. That was another argument in the making if Ace didn't head it off first.

"What a pretty fire…" Doffy crooned and Zoro flared before simmering low on his log again.

An awkward silence hung over them after that, well Ace supposed that was one way to defuse an argument before it even started.

Marco came prancing down the stairs just then, he was more casual then Ace had ever seen him, or maybe it was just his attitude that made everything much more…sunny.

He was dressed in his usual clothes but his long cloak seemed to have shrink or it was a different one of the same color. It was now more of a jacket and his blonde hair was spiked higher on his head, it really resembled a pineapple now but like hell Ace was going to mentioned that, he didn't have a death wish.

The smile…it was the smile that brought all that sunniness to light. Marco was practically beaming at them and it wasn't just the smile, his eyes were smiling with him.

He wasn't hiding behind any masks right now…Marco was being Marco.

Ace felt his breath catch in his throat as he stared at the man.

"Good morning everyone." Marco said.

"…Glad to see that you made it back in one piece." Ace grumbled and tried to hide his red face by having his hair fall forward, it was getting a bit longer so it kind of worked out.

"Welcome back Master Marco!" Sanji beamed with pieces of egg sticking to his face. Ace had to bite down on his tongue to stop himself from scolding the boy and wiping his face off with a napkin. He was _not _going to be the mom in this scenario.

"We can keep Chopper right?" Sanji practically glowed at this point and Chopper somehow perfected the puppy eyes because even Ace could feel himself melting at the scene. It was a little _too_ cute...

Ace decided that he needed to fight something or someone soon, possibly Marco or else he feared his skills will waste away, especially if he was falling in these kid's cute trap.

Maybe the soap was being too lenient after all…

"The Evil Puppet Master and Law's pet spy sitting on my table." Marco stated before breaking into infectious laughter. "Dear me- who else will it be next time Ace?" He laughed harder at Ace's renewed blush. "I'm surprised that you let them in Zoro."

"I had no choice! Ace crash landed that plane into my face and then bullied me into letting them stay." Zoro whined which quickly became a snarl when Sanji snickered at his predicament.

"I knew he would make a great pilot." Marco stated and moved over to the area where a large curtain was bellowing in the wind. He moved it and stared gleefully at the large hole. Veggie head was leaning just outside the hole and began to do a little dance now that he could see inside.

"Looks like we have yet another addition to the family, hello there." Marco greeted Veggie Head and laughed as Veg tilted his head in hello. "That's some nasty curse you have on you, looks like you fit perfectly in this family, as we all are suffering from one curse or another."

"What a handsome man…" Doffy now crooned at Marco and yet again the awkward silence persisted. Although it only lasted about a minute before Marco laughed it off and moved away from the hole.

"So we've got a lot to do today, we're moving." Marco said while smiling widely at all of them. Sanji cheered and quickly scarfed down the rest of his food while Chopper copied him.

Ace stared at the commotion for a minute and quickly turned to his own food before vacuuming it all down in seconds. He had the feeling if he hadn't done that he wouldn't have gotten anything to eat at morning.

"We're moving?" Ace asked.

"Law is still hot on our trail so we're going to have to hurry." Marco turned to Veg. "I'm sorry, the curse on you is too strong for this move. You're going to have to stay here."

Veggie actually looked sad for a second and Ace still wanted to know how he did that, but quickly became his usual cheerful self and hopped a little further away from the opening.

"Okay everyone clear a space while I go chalk the spell." Marco ordered and before Ace knew it they were already ready. Marco had carefully etched a large spell onto the ground with Sanji helping by picking up any rocks that would have blocked the spell's path. Ace quickly cleaned off the table and picked up the chairs and anything else that was lying on the ground.

Once that was all done Marco had Zoro move the castle so that it was standing right in the middle of the array. He then had everyone sit on top of the large dining room table and they watched as he sketched yet another spell onto the ground floor.

"Now remember stay put." Marco ordered and chuckled when Sanji stuck his tongue out at him. He walked over towards Zoro and gently picked him up with the fire shovel.

"Carefully, carefully." Zoro chanted as he sat on top of the metal. Marco ignored him as he stood in the middle of his spell and had his arm stretched out with Zoro and his other arm held slightly away with his fingers bent in oddly.

"Watch this…" Zoro smirked smugly and Marco mirrored the same smirk. A strange wind blew from below and suddenly they were both glowing and Zoro changed, he was no longer the green little fire demon, now he was a bellowing large demon with razor shape teeth and really narrow eyes and his colors changed into a dark red and black. It was magnificent to witness.

Everything started to sparkle with magic and they all gaped as the scenery changed around them. Their home warped around them, squeezing things into existence and erasing others.

More rooms seemed to pop up and the décor became much nicer, the kitchen got bigger and the fridge was twice the size it had been before. Windows popped up with beautiful and tasteful curtains and where the hole that Ace had made bricks suddenly built up a wall and a wall picture of a plane was placed in the middle. Couches and chairs and rugs and all manner of furniture filled the new space that Zoro and Marco created.

Once the magic settled down Marco quickly put Zoro back on the fire pit. Which was now a very nice black stoned one. "It's safe to get down now."

Sanji and Chopper didn't need to be told twice and were already running around exploring their new home. "It's so big!" Sanji shouted from down a hallway that had just popped up in existence.

Ace took a moment to help Doffy down and set him in a comfy chair in front of Zoro and disregarded the glare from the fire demon for putting the old man there.

Ace moved to a window and stared outside, a very familiar outside that he'd never thought he'd be able to see again. Unknowing to him he deaged even more. He now was maybe only a decade away from his true age.

"This is…" He whispered and jumped a little when Marco came up behind him.

"Like it? I even added an extra bathroom. Since our family just seems to keep growing." Marco smiled and showed him before walking away. "Come over here Ace."

Ace walked as if in a daze towards Marco who had his hand on the doorknob of yet another new door.

"I also added another bedroom, have a look." Marco opened the door and Ace gasped.

It was his room.

_His room._

The room he'd had when he lived with gramps and Luffy.

"What the-?!" Ace mouthed and walked inside. Everything was the same, down to his comforter on the bed.

"How-? Why-?" Ace sputtered, his age regressing back older as uncertainty and confusion clouded his eyes.

"So we'd have a room for you…do you like it?" Marco asked.

Ace looked out the window that he remembered looking out of almost every day of his life. "Its fine – prefect for an old man."

Marco sighed but the smile didn't drop from his face. "I got you some new clothes as well but you can open them later. Come on I want to show you the rest of our new home." Marco reached out his hand and Ace accepted it after only a moment's hesitation.

Marco pulled him out of the room and to the front door. Sanji and Chopper were already running around the small courtyard that made up the front area of their home.

"The shop next to us is ours as well." Marco stated proudly and Ace's eyebrows furrowed. Because something really wasn't right about all this. This was his shop, his family's home.

If it was now their new home…Marco's home then where were the rest of the D's? What had happened while he was away?

Marco closed the door and pointed to the colored dials. He didn't seem to notice where Ace's current trail of worrying thoughts were going.

"See the new color? It's a new portal." He pointed out and Ace was luckily distracted from his own thoughts and focused once more on the present. The was a new color on the dial, a sunny yellow.

Marco quickly changed the color to the new yellow one and opened the door.

"Wow." Ace marveled at the bright sunlight that shown through the door, Marco once more took Ace's hand in his own and lead him outside, both of them ignoring the snickering from Zoro.

Ace was lead out into a field of flowers and small rolling hills. It was really beautiful and there was no way this was natural.

"Did your magic do this?" Ace asked.

"Only a little, I just helped the flowers grow. Everything else can be attested to mother nature." Marco let go of his hand and suddenly Ace's feet were off the ground and he was swept into Marco's arms.

"MARCO!" Ace howled and squirmed in embarrassment. "Put me down!"

"No." Marco laughed. "This is a present for you…you like it?" Marco jogged a few yards and slowly put Ace down on his feet, dodging the fist that would have left a nice shiner on his face if it had connect.

Ace huffed but he couldn't stay annoyed at the man. Not when they were at what was possibly the most beautiful place that Ace had ever seen.

Rolling hills covered in thousands of small, soft flowers and green grass. A beautiful blue sky with an only a few wisps of clouds rolling around, the sun beaming warmly onto them.

It was truly magical, without the hocus pocus.

Ace walked a little ways away from Marco towards a small body of water, there was a small breeze blowing and Ace had to steady his hat on his hand as he stared at the small ripples that the wind created.

"This is really…" Ace paused and breathed deeply. "…nice."

"Ace?"

"This place feels familiar to me, even though I know I've never been here." Ace admitted before turning around and grinning widely at Marco.

Marco may or may not have been blushing lightly at this point. "Come this way."

Ace followed Marco as they walked at a calmingly pace, soon they reached a minor valley where a small cottage was stationed, it was shaped kind of oddly. It resembled a tree house without the tree. It was wooden and was a couple of feet above ground, suspended by wooden planks and large rocks. It was cool looking and Ace could only imagine what his brother would say if he could see it. Probably say that it was the coolest thing since the discovery of meat.

"This was my secret hideaway, I spent a lot of time here as a kid." Marco said.

"You were by yourself?" Ace asked when he noticed the small glimmer of sadness in Marco's eyes.

"My uncle who was a powerful sea-wizard gave me this place before he vanished into unknown waters. His name was Whitebeard and in his younger days his name resounded through the kingdoms. That's why I kept his name for one of my aliases. It's a very powerful thing, a name. It can influence people and wreak havoc or calm a storm."

Ace snorted and bumped shoulders with Marco. "Or you just wanted to keep something to remind you of him. You loved him didn't you?"

"…Yes I did. He took care of me when I was younger, I looked up to him."

"Family is a very powerful force." Ace said. "It can drive us to do wonderful or terrible things…at least that's what my Gramps says. I say- they can be annoying at all hell but in the end you can't help but love them and wish to protect them against any outside force…or even inside forces."

Marco was silent before nodding in agreement. Ace didn't know why he said all that and he was kind of embarrassed but he didn't regret it.

"When my uncle left this too me I used it as my private study and now you can come here whenever you'd like as well."

"So it's to be _our_ secret hideout?" Ace teased.

Marco turned his whole body until he was facing him. "_Ours._" He says this in a thoughtful and wondering tone, as if the very thought hadn't really occurred the him and yet…

Again Ace's face flushed red. It was like a contest between them at this point. When one blushes the other suffers right after.

Although the blush didn't last long, something about Marco right now was setting off warning bells in his head. Something wasn't right and it was the same feeling he'd gotten earlier.

"Marco…"

"What's wrong?" Marco had started walking towards the cottage but stopped and turned around when he noticed Ace wasn't following him.

"Somethings wrong. I feel like- like you're going to leave. Like all this that you're doing right now is some kind of goodbye." Ace's voice turned pleading. "I'm wrong right? Tell me I'm wrong."

Marco was silent. It was kind of a telling silence.

"Tell me what's going on." Ace let go of any feelings of fear or uncertain. He didn't have time to deal with them. "I'm not a young girl you know. You can tell me what's happening. I'm grateful…happy that you want to protect me but I'm a man and I can handle it. I don't care if you're turning into some kind of turkey of doom. Your my- well your my best friend and I want to help you." Ace lifted his hand and turned it into fire, he had to concentrate really hard to do it since the fire inside of him wanted to burst out and burn everything around him. "I have this. I don't know why and frankly I don't really care but if I can help you fight I will."

"I'm just trying to make sure you all live comfortably. With all this space you could-"

"Don't you dare Marco." Ace interrupted. "Don't you dare do some kind of last will bullshit. You're better than that." Ace walked forward until he was practically face to face with Marco, but since he was a few inches short it was more like head to neck. Ace stretched out his neck so that he could stare into Marco's eyes. He needed the wizard to see how serious he was about this.

"I know that I may not be powerful or very useful. Even with these powers I know I can't control them very well. Not without practice and I feel like we don't have the time for such a thing. I'm good at cleaning and while I'm not much too look at-"

"Shut up idiot." Marco interrupted and before Ace could get angry about that he continued. "You beautiful, the most beautiful man I have ever met and the only one I ever want too."

Ace gawked in stunned silence for what felt like an hour but was probably only a few seconds.

Then he kind of self-combust.

He could feel the flames on his skin lick his clothing. He stumbled backwards and flinched when Marco reached out to help stable him.

"Don't touch-!" Ace warned but Marco disregarded his warning and touched him anyway. Then something even stranger happened, where Marco touched him the fire changed color and simmered down. Ace's fire originally was a beautiful orange-red but when Marco's bare flesh touched him it simmered down to a blue color.

Marco wasn't burned. Somehow his fire was sentient enough to know that he didn't want to harm Marco.

Ace let out a shaky sigh/laugh and was about to speak but Marco suddenly turned around and made a hushing motion.

Ace cocked his head and decided to not yell about being hushed, which was something he really, really hated.

It was subtle but after a few seconds Ace could hear it, an engine.

A very, _very_ large engine.

"What the fuck?!" Ace whispered harshly as he stared at the huge battle plane flying low nearby. It was a battle ship, it didn't matter if it was this country's or another's. The only thing it caused was death and destruction and the only place Ace could think of them going was…

"Town…Marco they are headed towards home!"

Marco stared stone-faced at the battle ship, then he whipped his arm around and Ace could practically feel the magic leaving it.

The ship's engines suddenly stalled, not all of them or else the ship would have fallen straight down from the sky and squish the flower valley to bits. But enough sabotage was done that Ace doubted that the ship would make it to town any time soon.

"I would have burned them from the sky." Ace mumbled and winched when Marco sent him an unamused glare.

"But then what would happen to all the flowers?" Marco countered and Ace had nothing to say to that.

He did notice that Marco was trying, unsuccessfully at that, to hide the arm that he'd just used behind his back.

It was covered in small feathers and was shaking, as if in pain.

"Damnit Marco, you have to be more careful." Ace said.

"Looks like we've been spotted."

Ace turned back to the ship and saw about a dozen fliers come out of the damaged ship, they were headed straight for them.

Marco gripped his waist and suddenly half-transformed into his bird form. Feathers bloomed and wings sprouted.

"Those are Law's henchmen, let's get you out of here." Marco then took off from the ground.

Ace will deny to his dying day that he may have screamed a little at the sudden takeoff and yet again when Marco all but threw him through the doorway that lead back to the castle.

"Ace? Are you okay?" Sanji asked, confused as to why Ace had come barreling through the doorway portal which closed right behind him and changed the dial itself.

"Argh! I'm too old to be treated like this!" Ace hissed with his head face planted into the floor and his ass in the air.

Ace pushed Sanji's head under the bathwater with only a touch of malicious glee. The little brat had gotten dirt all over his face and hair when he had been out playing earlier and for some reason refused to take a bath.

Ace, who had worked hard to keep their damned home spotless wasn't impressed and dragged the kicking and screaming brat to the bathroom. Chopper who was just as dirty fallowed after snickering.

Ace was waiting until the proper moment to tell the mutt that he was also in need of a bath.

But better wait until later…that way he won't have to deal with two rugrats at the same time.

"It's not that bad." Ace consoled after Sanji sent him a betrayed look. "Look, you like looking nice right? Your clothing is almost always spotless and don't think I haven't seen those hair products in your room."

Listening with amusement over Sanji's protests about not being anything like Marco Ace snorted.

"Of course you're not like that. You may care enough about your studies not to look like a slob but you're no peacock." Ace paused in thought. "Peacock…oh that's a good one. I'll need to save it for a special occasion."

Sanji snickered and finally began to wash himself, abide still hesitatingly. He still gave Ace pleading blue puppy eyes.

Ace shook his head, amused despite himself. "You have nothing on the shillyshally of my brother so don't even think for a second that you are getting out of there until you're so clean that you squeak with cleanness."

"You have a brother?" Sanji asked and Ace couldn't place his tone, it was two-parts hesitate and one-part sadness, and yet it was almost monotone like Sanji really didn't care to know.

"Yes a younger brother. His name is Luffy, I also have Gramps." Ace said. He squirted some shampoo on Sanji's head and began to scrub, ignoring Sanji's protests. "I use to give him baths like this all the time. He had the same abhorrence to bath time…maybe it a little brother thing."

"You…you think of me as y-your little brother?" Sanji's voice was meek and there was a pleading in it that Ace couldn't ignore. He reached around and hugged Sanji, ignoring the wetness that was seeping in his shirt.

"Sanji…you are as much a part of my family as my own blood brother. That goes for Zoro and Marco too. The mutt and old man are on probation though." Ace snickered at the whining from behind him. Looks like he may have hurt the mutt's feelings a bit. He'd give him a milk bone later or something.

Like he had hoped Sanji laughed at his joke and went back to his bath, this time with more enthusiasm than before. It looked like the topic had been weighing on him for a while now and Ace cursed himself for not noticing sooner.

"Okay I think your clean now."

Sanji cheered and practically ran out of the room with a small towel wrapped around his waist while dripping water everywhere.

Ace snagged Chopper's small tail when the mutt made to go after him.

"Oh no. Now it's your turn."

A few minutes later…

Howls of desperation and despair and yells of exasperation and frustration filled the room.

Ace tucked Doffy in his new bed which was comfortably in the main room, it was only closed off my heavy curtain. It was probably a good thing, Doffy was kind of old now and Ace didn't feel that the old man was safe where Ace wouldn't be able to get to him quickly. Oh how things have changed, Ace shook his head mentally. It really didn't matter at this point and he would just give himself a headache thinking about it. At least now Doffy's psychotic personality seemed to have vanished. Either that or he finally mellowed in his true old age.

"Do you need anything before I turn in?"

"No, I'm good."

Ace nodded and turned around to head to his own room.

"You're in love."

Ace froze and felt the hairs on his arms and neck stand up. He turned his head a little, enough to see Doffy out of the corner of his eye.

"Don't bother to deny it, I can tell. You've been worrying a trench in the floor all day."

Ace thought of denying it but discarded that idea after a second. It wouldn't do any good when everyone and their grandmother seems to know the truth.

Wait…does that mean Marco knows?

"Ah hell." Ace mumbled and walked towards the bed and sat down at the end of it.

"Knew it."

"Smug bastard."

Doffy just smirked and cuddled deeper into his blankets. Ace snorted but relaxed back on his elbows.

"Have you ever been in love?" Ace asked.

Doffy's smirk widened. "Of course, young men and women are easily seducible and fun. Their hearts are just beautiful, especially when I get to hold them."

Ace grimaced. "That's disgusting."

"True. But I think you might be talking about a different kind of love." Doffy paused for a second before an expression of melancholy over took his aged face. "Love, true love that grips your own heart and sets it fluttering…I've only felt that once in my life. It wasn't romantic, not in the sense that normal people view but…"

"But?" Ace urged on, this was something that he hadn't really expected of Doffy, the earlier comments of stealing hearts of young adults made sense. This…not so much.

"I did love him…Rosinante."

Before Ace could ask anything else a siren blared loudly outside.

"What is that?" Ace exclaimed and ran to the window to look outside.

"An air raid siren."

"Air raid?"

"Sounds a little ways off but I wouldn't go outside if I were you. Law's still looking for us." Doffy looked over towards Zoro. "Such a good fire, he keeps this castle so well hidden."

Ace looked back at Zoro and smiled, but it was a small and brittle smile. He couldn't help but worry. About Marco, Zoro, about their safety, Law, 'bout Doffy, Gramps and Luffy, wondering if everyone will be okay by the time this is all over.

He hoped so, he really did.

Marco rode the skies as fire and shrapnel rained down onto the ground below him. He could see thousands of soldiers on the ground, marching and fighting and dying.

It was ugly. Truly the ugliest sight he'd ever seen in his lifetime.

He could only hope that none of its ugliness touched his family, hope…and fight.

The next day Ace was sweeping the walkway in their small courtyard when Sanji same running up to him. He had a panicked look in his eyes and was hyperventilating slightly.

"Ace! There's a weird old man in here!" With that panicked statement Sanji went running back into their home and slammed the door shut.

Ace stared blankly forward for all of two seconds before Sanji's statement hammered home.

Weird…old…man…?

"ACE!"

"Fuck! Gramps!"

Ace managed to doge his grandfather's automatic 'fist of love' with surprisingly grace.

"Damn it Gramps! Is this any way to treat your grandson who's been gone!?"

Garp laughed, "Oh silly boy! I missed you so much that I can't help but show you my love through my fists!" He raised his fists in the air to showcase his point.

"Right…well then I'm off!" Ace turned around quickly, hoping to make it back into the safe walls of the castle but knowing instinctively that it was futile, well that and experience.

"HAHAHA my mysterious older grandson, such silly and unrealistic things you say…but if you want to introduce me to your family then who am I to stop you." Garp grinned while tightening his grip on Ace's shoulders.

Ace's shoulders slumped in defeat. "Yea."

Ace could see Sanji peering around a corner as he showed his grandfather where he lived now.

"This is really nice, I hardly recognize the place. I'm sure you came back and noticed that we'd permanently moved. I realized after you left that maybe I needed to expand Luffy's horizons…after our own little trip went off without a hitch. Your brother was very worried about you Ace. You couldn't send a letter?"

"I- sorry." Ace apologized sheepishly. "It honestly never even crossed my mind. Besides you wouldn't have gotten if it you and Luffy had gone incognito like you planned. Where is he by the way? I would think Luffy would have been the first to find me, that brother-radar thing he has use to creep me out."

Garp burst out laughing causing Doffy to scowl in his chair.

"If you're going to cause such a commotion the least you could do is offer your host a gift." Doffy sniffed disdainfully at Garp.

"Oh? Who is this? Your employer perhaps? Taking care of such a rude little man must be difficult."

"Excuse you, who is little?" Doffy snarled and tried to drawl up to his full height, sadly for him his back creaked ominously and he quickly slouched again.

"You old man." Garp taunted. "Here then. For your troubles. I was going to give it to Ace but maybe it's better off in your hands." Garp threw a small bag at Doffy who caught it with surprisingly good reflexes.

Ace had been following the conversation and was about to ask what the heck that was all about when Garp turned back to him.

"Ah you were asking about Luffy right? Well…" Garp scratched his head and grinned widely. "Well the little rugrat decided to run off and get hitched."

Everything was dead silent, then...

Ace sputtered, coughed and hacked. "W-what?!" His eyes were wide enough that they almost overtook his face.

Garp was rolling around the ground laughing hysterically at Ace's reaction.

"Bwhahaah. No dumb grandbrat of mine. Luffy's with an old…acquaintance of mine. Seems the brat has taken an interest though and is enjoying his time there."

"Oh…okay then."

"You should come with Ace! I've managed to secure a really nice place in the capital. It's perfect to open up shop."

Ace froze at Garp's request. "…Leave?" He whispered and out of the corner of his eye he could see Sanji's face twisted in sadness and betrayal.

No, it wasn't even up to debate.

"Gramps, I do miss you and Luffy and while I'd love to catch up with you all…I've found my home." Ace spread his arms wide. "I honestly haven't been this happy in a long time and I don't want to leave."

"Are you sure Ace?" Garp's voice was serious this time, showing that this now was no laughing matter.

"Yes."

"Hmmm." Garp twisted his moustache in thought. "You remember our little chat, the one we had before you left?"

"…Kinda." Ace answered honestly.

"I just don't want anyone to take advantage of you. I know your strong, your my grandson after all and won't let anyone just walk over you but your also kind." Garp held up a hand to stall any protests that Ace may have wanted to voice. "Don't bother to deny it, you Ace are a very kind and generous man, you have the will of fire in you that your parents had, Luffy that rugrat has it too but yours is so much more…it's what makes you angry at times."

Ace looked down. "I figured it was something like that." Ace debated with himself for a minute then he lifted up his hand and turned it into fire. Garp didn't seem surprised except for the slight widening of his eyes.

"So you've tapped into it." Garp grinned toothfully. "Finally, I was beginning to wonder if you could manifest it outside of your body."

"I'm going out on a limb here and say that this has something to do with my parentage right?"

"Now that would be telling, your years too young to be demanding answers yet. Come find me in a few years after you get bored of domestic bliss."

Ace grimaced. "It's not domestic or even blissful. It's called comfort, old fart." Ace shook his head. "And I won't be getting tired of it any time soon, possibly never."

"That's- good." Garp reached out and pulled Ace into a bone crushing hug. "I'm glad and I know that Luffy will be too. Well I'm off!" Garp practically threw Ace into a wall as he let go. "Things to do, places to go, people to smash with the fist."

"So…the usual then." Ace mumbled sarcastically. "I'll see you around Gramps."

Garp paused at the door for a second, a look of petrified uncertainty on his face as he stared at Ace, who had turned around to coax Sanji out from around the corner.

"Forgive me…" Garp whispered and left quickly before Ace could turn back around and ask him to repeat what he said.

Ace looked out into the empty doorway and shrugged, he hadn't managed to catch whatever his grandfather had just said but if it was important he'd just ask him when they next meet.

Garp was already on his way to the capital where Law was holding his youngest grandson hostage. He was trembling in rage over his insight, he'd never guess that Law would pull a stunt like that, at least not for some outsider of the family.

Garp paused in thought, "Not quiet an outsider if Ace's feelings are anything to go by."

He could only hope that Lord Law was suffering after having to personally deal with Luffy, especially after Luffy had declared that Law was now the second love of his life after meat when they first met.

Garp laughed grimly, he only hoped that Luffy would leave with him after he told Law his dirty little deed was gone. He could only have faith in his oldest grandson and his new found family that they would be strong enough to weather whatever Law had in store for them.

"Sanji come on out, I've got an apple with your name on it."

Whoever said bribery never worked had obviously never tried it on a kid because even with how disgruntled Sanji was at him it didn't stop him from coming forward and snatching the fruit from Ace's out stretched hand.

"Now, do you want to tell me what's this all about?" Ace asked although he already had a pretty good idea.

"That old man wanted to take you away with him. He's your family right? So you're going to leave…"

"Sanji…" Ace sighed before bonking the kid on the head, lightly though, he didn't want to give Sanji an accidental concussion after all.

"Oww!" Sanji whined while holding his head with both hands. "Why did you do that?"

"Because you're being an idiot. Didn't I say it before? I'm not leaving, so you'd better get use to me always being around. Squirt."

"I'm not a squirt!" Sanji protested before what Ace said occurred to him. "Really?"

"Yea."

Sanji threw himself into Ace, throwing his little arms around his waist and temporarily knocking the breath right out of him.

"I love you." Sanji mumbled and Ace…well Ace melted like a popsicle on a really hot day.

"I love you too, all of you." Ace choked up a bit and sternly coughed to hide the fact.

"Did you mean it when you said we were a family?"

"Of course I did." Ace really, really wanted to address whatever it was that had caused such doubt in the young boy's past but he knew now was not the time. Someday though he was going to get it out of him and on that day Ace was going to barbecue some asshole.

In his chair Doffy was smoking a cigar that he'd pulled from pouch that Garp had thrown at him. The thick smoke was quickly filling the room, he reached back inside the bag and withdrew a pitch black spell worm.

"Hmm you have to do better than that Law-boy. Zoro- catch!" Doffy threw the worm into the hair and Zoro who was on automatic when it came to food being thrown at him swallowed it.

He regretted it greatly a second later when he simmered down into a sickly ember.

Ace didn't notice any of this as he went about his chores. The day was once again turning dark as the hours passed by.

When the sun had finally reached the horizon Ace turned to Zoro, only then wondering why the fire had been so silent for so long.

He noticed right away then that Zoro wasn't merrily crackling along the logs. In fact Ace couldn't see him at all.

"Zoro? Do you need another log? Zoro?"

Doffy's smoke had gathered a rather large cloud in the room now, Sanji was subtly coughing as he peered at the newspaper they had gotten that morning. Wondering if Marco may have made the news or anything.

"Zoro?" Ace walked towards the fire pit now and tried to get Zoro started, he placed two really good logs down and gave him some air from a fan. But Zoro still didn't rise.

"Doffy could you please stop smoking that disgusting thing. It smells terrible and I'm worried that it's effecting Zoro. Sanji open a window please."

"Don't deny an old wizard his simple pleasures." Doffy made several smoke rings in a row as he kept taking deep breaths of the cigar, it hadn't even dwelled down much, even after all this time. "Besides it isn't just the cigar that weakens Zoro. I wouldn't do that if I were you young man." Doffy called out to Sanji who was ignoring him. "Zoro's too weak to defend us right now, if you open any windows or doors to the outside Law's henchmen will find us."

Ace stared in disbelief at Doffy for a second before calling out to Sanji to not open the window. But by then it was too late and Sanji had already opened the window wide.

Sanji peered outside into the dark and gave a sigh of relief at the fresh air, the smell from the smoke had been terrible.

Ace hurried over towards Sanji to close the window before they were found out but a loud explosion rocked the house.

"Bombs!" Sanji squeaked and toppled over from the chair he had been standing on to open the window.

Ace raced over once he got his feet under him again and pulled Sanji back and slammed the window shut. Then he ran towards the door and yanked it open.

"I'm going to check on the shop. Sanji you stay inside and try to rouse Zoro. Keep an eye on Doffy too."

"Aye." Sanji saluted and went towards the fire pit and called Zoro every bad name under the sun in order to get some kind of reaction to the fire, he didn't get anything though which worried the boy, while he and Zoro may fight like dogs and cats all the time Zoro was family too and he didn't want anything to happen to the fire demon.

Ace ran into the small shop that they had yet to do anything about and pulled the front doors open. He could see that a building down the street was on fire and had mostly collapse on itself.

He wanted to go and help, he could see people running up and down the streets, either with buckets of water to try to tame the flames or with injured people who needed to get to safety.

Ace was now his true age, the curse had been broken the moment he'd acknowledge his true feelings and felt the fear of anything harming his family. It may or may not have been sped up with his new found powers too.

Still didn't stop his hair from having a few silver strakes mixed in with the black strands.

Suddenly the sound of marching footsteps came from the other side of the street, Ace paled as he saw magic constructs marching towards him, they resembled Dolfamingo's little puppets but Ace knew that they must be Law's.

"Why don't you do something constructive and put out the fires!? Don't you care about the citizens around you!?" Ace screamed at them as they came charging.

Ace wanted to fight them, he really did. But his family came first and he would be damned if he let anything happen to them. Not while he still breathed air.

Ace whirled around and ran back into the shop and threw the back door, he could hear them coming, and they were fast. He could hear them crashing around the shop, destroying everything in their past. He grinded his teeth in anger, how dare those monster ruin everything? Everything that Marco had given them?

Once he got into the courtyard Ace made the mistake of looking up and freezing.

One of the large battle ships was flying lazily above them…and letting go of a cargo full of bombs.

"Shit." Ace breathed out and stared fearfully at what he knew was going to be his death. He could only hope that Zoro was strong enough to protect the others inside the castle.

He watched as the bombs spread out and one in particular was headed straight for him. But as he stared upward he could see Marco in his hybrid bird form soar towards the bomb, intent on stopping it before it killed Ace.

"No! Marco!" Ace screamed out because what if the bomb went off mid-air? What if it killed Marco- this bomb was meant for him and he would gladly take it if that meant no one else would get hurt.

Everything happened so fast after that. The other bombs hit the ground sending off a chain reaction. Fire blazed while stones and bricks flew threw the air. Ace crashed backwards as the shock wave hit him. He grunted and felt a large rock hit his head, causing him to bleed.

"Ow…" Ace said woozily and slowly got up from the slump he'd landed in when he'd fallen over. "Marco...?"

Marco was perched over the bomb that had failed to detonate, it seemed that Marco had been able to stop it after all, except for the rather large hole in the middle of the courtyard you wouldn't think anything was wrong.

The house behind them was missing its windows and Ace could hear the creaking of broken furniture from inside. Zoro hadn't been able to stop it then, it was a good thing that Marco had stopped the bomb that would have touched down on them, if he hadn't…none of them would have been walking out of this.

Ace ran forward and threw himself into Marco's arms, much like Sanji had done to him earlier. "Marco!"

Marco returned the hug fiercely. "I'm sorry Ace, I should have gotten here much sooner."

"It doesn't matter you're here now." Ace said and tightened his grip around Marco's neck. "You're alive and that's the only thing that matters to me right now…we should probably go in though. I need to check on the others. Something's wrong with Zoro as well."

Ace could feel Marco's lips touching the top of his head in a tender kiss and Ace couldn't help but smile. Despite everything that was happening he couldn't say he wasn't happy right now. Being in Marco's arms, even his feathery birdy ones was cause for a smile or two.

But all good things must come to an end. Law's blob-like henchmen were making their way through the wreckage and making their way towards them.

"Come on." Marco's arms wrapped around Ace and guided him back to their front door.

They didn't even rush it because while they may have been moving slow the stupid henchmen were moving even slower.

The door slammed shut after them, right in their faces which at any other time would have Ace snickering in amusement.

Not now though- Ace let go of Marco and rushed over towards Sanji, the boy was filthy with dirt and plaster, he was shaking as well in shock.

While Ace was comforting the small boy Marco made his way to Zoro. "Wake up now old friend, you can't clonk out now." He withdrew the worm from Zoro's flame and dispelled it.

"Urgh." Zoro moaned and burned brightly, although without his usual flare. It seemed that the worm was still messing with his system. "I feel sick, that bastard feed me something gross."

Marco turned towards Doffy who was still smoking with a calm air about him. "I'm going to go on a limb and say that that cigar was a present from Lord Law." It wasn't a question.

"Marco." Doffy smirked, "I think you and me need to have a nice heart-to-heart."

"I'd like nothing better but it will have to wait till later." Marco reached out and plucked the cigar out of Doffy's limp fingers and crushed it. Doffy just fake pouted and leaned further back into the dust covered chair. "There's a war going on outside."

"It's funny, you not running away anymore. Till later then."

Marco moved away, Ace noticed that and let go of a now much calmer Sanji. "Marco-"

"You stay here Ace. Zoro will protect you all from the henchmen as long as you stay inside. He's still weak from Law's spell to do anything to strenuous and he won't be able to protect you all from any of the bombs."

"I can fight!" Ace protest and Marco shook his head and gripped Ace's shoulders softly with his claw like hands.

"I don't want to chance you getting hurt. I know you're not a damsel Ace, you're a fighter as well as a nurturer. I know this but…I can't help but want you safe. All of you safe."

"Then…let's run. Let's go somewhere far away where no one will be able to track us down." Ace said frantically. He didn't want Marco fighting alone, he was just a man, a powerful wizard- sure. But still one man against a war.

If Marco wouldn't let him fight then it was better for them all to run away together although it hurt Ace's pride greatly.

"I'm tired of running." Marco said gently. "I'm tired of being a coward. I have something I want to protect now, it's you- and I'd be damned if I allow any harm to come to you."

Marco then fled through the door before Ace could say anything back slamming the door shut behind him.

Ace's body shook, whether in fear or adrenaline or any of the thousand emotions coursing through his body. "Wait! Marco!"

Ace ran to the door and yanked it open, running after Marco who had already taken off into the sky to protect them from any stray bombs.

Ace stared up into the sky with conflicted eyes and heart. He wanted to be out here and fighting with Marco, protecting _their _home and loved ones equally.

He may have to kick Marco's ass later for putting him in this position. Of defending rather than attacking. But later…right now he had something else to deal with.

Law's henchmen were regrouping a little ways away from him, he turned towards them with angry eyes and clenched teeth bared in a furious grin.

"You fucking bastards…you'll all pay for this. I will personally see to it that Law gets his ass handed to him on a god damn silver platter." He lifted his arm in the air until it was even with his chest, and his palm was closed in a fist.

"Fire fist." He whispered furiously and watched as his whole arm turned into flames and shot forward. Blowing apart the henchmen into tiny bits. "Take that back to Law assholes."

He turned back around and slammed the door shut behind him.

"That was badass Ace." Sanji said in awe as he stood near Zoro. Chopper who had been hiding under the couch this whole time finally came out as well with awe filled eyes.

"Thanks." Ace turned the dial on the door when it began to shake. "It looks like those monsters are more resilient then I thought." He turned the dial to the one that would lead to the Wastes.

Slowly he opened the door and walked through, it was really dark now and raining. He could see his town now, burning in the distance. Battleships filled the sky above and more bombs crashed down, destroying everything.

"There are so many people down there…" Ace spoke aloud. "I know them, the market people that sold us our food, they were always friendly even when Luffy would practically break down the butcher's door to get to the meat and then there's our neighbors, nice folk for the most part, the families that liked to go to the docks and fish together, Luffy and I always got on well with them, especially the little ones…they could all be dead now." Ace suddenly screamed, loud and monstrous. "Fuck this war! Fuck the people that started this shit and fuck the people that continue it! FUCK!" He crashed into the ground onto his knees as the rain pounded down hard onto his body, soaking him to the bone and plastering his hair to his face. "Marco you better make it through this shit storm because if you don't I'm dragging your ass out of hell and kicking it!"

He could see where their shop was, where Marco was protecting them. He was fighting on top of one of the ships- the ship suddenly went up in flames and exploded. Ace watched horrified as Marco held on as he battled the flying henchmen that were relentlessly attacking him.

"Ace." Sanji called out and Ace turned back around, Veggiehead was also there, standing right by the doorway and Ace could feel his worry.

Ace thought about what he could do to help, he wished he could control the fire that raged on the town but he knew instinctively that the only fire he could control was his own, he was useless otherwise and this war didn't need more fire. It needed a breath of fresh air and cleansing water.

Ace ran back inside the shop, there was one thing he could do to assist Marco, they needed to break away so that Marco would stop protecting them and start protecting himself.

"Zoro you have to change the portals, we need to break away from the shop entirely so that Marco will stop protecting it. Sanji get some coats!"

"You're insane, I can't change the dials without Marco, and only our combined powers can do that."

"You have to try. I think I prefer it when Marco was a coward. Now he's just as reckless as Luffy."

Ace got Doffy in a heavy rain coat and a heavy blanket to keep warm. "Come on, outside we go."

"We'll be too vulnerable." Zoro protest but Ace overrode him.

"We already too damned vulnerable, at least this way Marco has a chance, we will all have a chance."

"ACE!" Sanji screamed out as he looked out a window. "They are about to bomb the shop!"

"Get outside now!" Ace ordered. "Zoro do it now!"

"Damn it, it's not that simple!" Zoro roared back.

Ace got Sanji to direct Doffy outside while he picked up a small ash shovel and stood in front of Zoro.

"You're coming with us, it's not safe otherwise."

"Don't be an idiot! Only Marco can take me out of this hearth."

"No time for arguments."

"Who's arguing!? This is a fact moron!"

Ace didn't waste another breath and carefully but quickly scooped Zoro out of his home.

"Stop! Have you completely lost your mind? Help! Crazy asshole with a shovel!" Zoro screamed out as they all went to the door. "I'm a fucking fire demon numbskull what do you think the rains going to do to me?! If you take me outside the castle will collapse and we won't be able to go anywhere else!"

"That's fine, we just need to disconnect. We'll figure out a plan for after that later."

"You don't have a plan!?"

"Shut up. Okay everyone out first and get away from the castle." Ace ordered and stayed a little ways from the doorway as they all did as he asked, he could see through the rain as Chopper helped direct Doffy by gripping a piece of the blanket in his mouth and pulling. Sanji was making sure that Veg knew what was going to happen and directed him in the direction that Doffy and Chopper were headed. Once they all got far enough Sanji came back and told him they were all ready.

Ace nodded, "Good, now you get back as well."

"You're really going to do this…damn. Okay Ace make sure that I'm the last one out or the castle will fall on your head. Who knows what else could happen." Zoro said, defeat high in his voice.

It was clear he didn't think much of the so-called plan but as long as he accepted it Ace wouldn't start anything. Besides they didn't have the time to argue, the bombs could be hitting the shop any minute now and they were still connected.

"Okay."

Ace slowly turned around and walked backwards, the second that Zoro followed the whole castle gave a huge shudder before collapsing inward on itself. Ace quickly backed away further as pieces of the castle fell to the ground.

"I told you." Zoro said smartly before beginning to panic as the rain fell down onto him. "Rain! Rain!"

Ace wasn't paying attention that that, he was more worried about the stealth battle ship that was slowly creeping towards them high above in the sky. It was making its way towards town. Great, another war ship that was no doubt carrying more bombs.

"Everyone get back inside. Sanji your on Doffy patrol, Veg help me find a way back inside."

They all tried scrambling inside through small openings that Veggiehead was able to locate, everything was trashed and it was strange to look at. All the magic was completely gone from the castle and it was a wreck, a very dangerous wreck as Ace caught a falling wooden beam with his foot before it could impact on Sanji's head.

"Be careful." He warned as they made their way slowly back to what was once their living room. He sat the shovel onto the damp hearth and quickly picked up pieces of wood for Zoro to eat off of.

"Here." He placed several large beams of wood onto of him. Zoro just grumbled and spread out quickly onto the semi-damp wood.

Chopper came trotting along with a small piece of wood in his jaws and handed it to Zoro who scarfed it down.

Ace smiled grateful down at the dog. "Thanks buddy."

Chopper just grinned, and Ace still wanted to know how he did that, and walked away to go sit by Doffy. This time Veggiehead was inside as well although he was standing carefully by the opening they had come in.

"Now we need to tell Marco that he doesn't need to protect the shop anymore since we're no longer attached. Zoro, move the castle closer to Marco."

"Wha-?" Zoro stared in disbelief.

"I know you can do it, I've never seen a fire with more spark then yours."

"But we don't have a chimney, and the castle is literally in pieces. How am I suppose to move something that's literally falling apart? Not to mention I keep getting dripped on and everything's more damp then a shower towel." Zoro did some weird fire dance as he tried to avoid the continuously dripping water that came through the holes and cracks in the ceiling.

"I'm sure you can figure it out, after all your Marco's partner aren't you? If there is anyone who can figure it out it would be you." Ace praised and Zoro couldn't help but flare up a little in pride.

"Fine…but I can't do it completely on my own, not without dying. You need to help me."

"How?" Ace asked, willing to do what it took but not knowing how he could contribute. He wasn't a wizard like Marco or even like Doffy. Heck even Sanji probably knew more magic then him at this point.

"If you had longer hair I would take some of that. You have power inside of you and any piece of you would be enough to give me strength."

"Ah so…"

"No Ace, you don't have to cut off any limbs or anything." Zoro's voice was definitely sarcastic and Ace just shot him a sheepish glare. He'd been thinking about it actually and he knew that's why Zoro had scolded him right then.

"Power huh…what about I feed you some of my fire?"

"That's- that would work. Your fire is you and you are your fire, a piece of your soul. With that I definitely can power this piece of junk to Marco."

"Okay then. So I just mix my fire with yours?" Ace asked and Zoro nodded. Ace then told everyone to stay back and together just in case anything went wrong…or right.

Ace ripped off his torn and dirty shirt, leaving him bare chest except for his necklace, that was given to him by Luffy years ago, his hat was tilted on his head and he straightened it and placed his feet wide apart to make his stance stronger. His pants and shoes were a lost cause but he'd throw them out later. After this Marco was taking them all fucking shopping and Ace and the rest of them were going to drain him dry with purchases.

Ace wanted a goddamn boat and hell come to anyone who said he couldn't have one. He wanted open waters and seas and no fucking bombs anywhere near his family again.

"Ready?" He asked and when Zoro nodded he lite both of his arms and thrust them into Zoro. He could feel the fire demon draining his power, it was strange but not necessarily bad, maybe it was because he was letting the fire leave him willingly. It wasn't be taken…but being offered instead.

Zoro glowed a bright green for a second before turning a searing white and exploding outward. Ace quickly pulled his arms back as his fire went out and he was in danger of being burned.

Zoro, now glowing white grew ten times his size and now had a humanoid figure, he was still clearly made of flame but now he had a body. Ace gulped, a very male…and naked body.

"Oh shit." Ace turned his face away, face blazing red with the heat of his blush. He could hear Sanji snickering and Doffy's admiring comments on Zoro's physical replication of a male body.

"Hold on to your heads now!" Zoro smirked and his powerful arms lifted the wooden beams above them. Which caused most of the castle to shudder and all the extra bits that made up the once proud castle feel to the ground, pieces that they didn't need and weren't important soon became junk on the ground. They needed as little space as possible to make it to Marco as fast as they could.

Soon only the living room was the only room left and with the castle's skinny legs they began to move towards the town at top speed. It was really good that Ace had told everyone to stick close together or they might have been left behind, even Veggiehead had been huddling close to Sanji and Doffy when Ace had feed Zoro his flames. Although he soon jumped out of an opening, deciding to take the lead out front, Ace gave him kudos, he was pretty fast for a scarecrow.

"Wow this is great Zoro! You're amazing!" Ace whooped at the speed they were moving, they would meet up with Marco in no time at all if they kept this up.

"Heh much better than a limb I gotta admit." Zoro agreed, his smirk still wide on his face. He was very handsome for a fire demon and Ace knew that if his heart didn't belong to a certain wizard he'd be drooling all over that. As it was he still couldn't look at anything but Zoro's face when facing him.

He was taken, not dead.

"The only thing that would probably have been better would have been your heart." Zoro joked and Ace went to laugh but Doffy jerked and shouted all of a suddenly.

"That's it! You have Marco's heart- give it to me!" Doffy shouted manically and to everyone's horror reached into Zoro's chest with his bare hands.

"Stop!" Ace shouted and run towards them, he'd been hovering on his knees towards the front, hoping to catch a glimpse of Marco in the distance. Now he was cursing himself, he should have been standing right next to Zoro or at least next to Doffy, the ex-wizard was old but no less crafty.

The real kicker of it was that he'd seen Marco in the sky, he was boxed in by all the flying henchmen and looked like he needed assistance asap or else…or else…

"Damn it all!" Ace shouted and tried to pull Doffy back. Zoro was screaming in pain as Doffy's hand clenched hard around the small- heart? That had been deep in Zoro's body. "Let him go!"

The left over castle around them was shaking and falling apart, Zoro couldn't keep his concentration up to keep them moving or even stable.

"Stop! Please stop!" Ace pleaded and pulled, he tried to summon his fire to him but it seemed that the earlier drain had run him dry for now because while he could feel it inside of him he couldn't call it out. He used all of his strength but Doffy had a dead man's grip on Zoro and wouldn't let go for anything.

Doffy was now on fire and was screaming along with Zoro.

"Let go you're going to burn up." Ace said desperately.

"Nooo it mine." Doffy moaned. "Hot so hot, I'm burning."

Ace let go as he felt his own hands burn and looked around desperately for anything to stop this. He was getting frantic now and he could feel panic clouding his judgement. He saw a small bucket filled with water and without thought picked it up and threw it on both Doffy and Zoro.

Doffy was drenched and Zoro…disappeared.

Ace's chest heaved in air as he stared in disbelief before everything collapsed on them.

Ace felt his body fall backwards, the shock of what he'd just done paralyzed his body as he fell away from the others.

"Ace!" Sanji cried out with his small arm stretched out, useless as Ace fell back with half of the debris…they'd been traveling on a cliff side and Ace's part of the castle fell down the riven. The other part consisted of only a small partial floor and two creaking legs, the others watched in disbelief as Ace fell with them not being able to do anything about it.

Ace didn't even have enough breath in his lungs to scream, still paralyzed in body and mind about what he'd just done to a member of his family.

He watched as everyone got smaller and smaller as he feel deeper with all the debris. He could see Chopper jump after him and only then did Ace finally moved, but only enough to embrace the fallen dog as he blacked out.

Ace woke up sluggishly, he was laying on the ground at an odd angle, it didn't feel like anything was broken but pain radiated throughout his body. He didn't know how he'd survived the fall but somehow he had, with minimal injuries.

Even his head wound from earlier had stopped bleeding.

Ace laid there and stared up into the cloudy sky, the sun was rising in the distance and he didn't know how long he'd been unconscious for, hours at the very least.

Ace could feel tears gather up in his eyes and he made no move to wipe them away as they spilled forward.

Zoro…oh gods. He'd killed his friend. Someone important to him.

Ace had possibly murdered a member of his family and if Zoro was dead that meant Marco…

"Ahhhhh!" Ace screamed and sobbed into the still air. He raised his arms and covered his eyes, blocking everything out as he continued to scream out his outrage and despair.

Chopper limped towards him from under the wreckage, he didn't bark or anything just stood there waiting.

"Chopper- I poured water on Zoro." Ace groaned out, his throat hurting from the screaming and his face was dirty from his tears and snot. He continued to sob as Chopper finally moved forward and laid down gently next to him, as if to offer comfort. "W-what if I killed him? What if I killed Marco?"

Chopper barked softly and snuggled in closer. Ace felt his tears leak through his hands as they over spilled once more.

He heard a whistling noise and while he would have loved to ignore it he couldn't allow anything to happen to Chopper, at the moment he was the only one that Ace could possibly help right now, he opened his eyes and noticed that his ring- the ring that Marco had given him was glowing a soft blue, it bubbled in a mass of color.

A way home, to Zoro and Sanji…

A way to Marco.

"Please if there is any god out there or magic left in me. Please lead me to Marco." The glow intensified and then spread in a straight line, just like it had done before, leading him in a direction. "Let's go Chopper." Ace whispered and slowly got up, biting back a groan as pain coursed through his body. He slowly walked forward and followed the light, maybe he would be in time to help, to save his friends and family.

Ace noticed that the light was pointed towards some wreckage leaning against the stone wall. He made his way over and pushed the trash away until he came across a door.

It was the castle door, their front door. The one that once held all those portals to different places. It looked completely normal, as if it was still standing in the castle, just waiting for someone to walk through its archway.

Ace looked down, the light was shining straight forward, through the wood.

"Ohhkay then." He pushed down on the handle and pulled, the door opened without a squeak.

Blackness, a nothingness greeted Ace and the dark just seemed to eat any light that touched it.

There was a breeze coming through the opening and Ace lifted the ring once more and watched how the blue light pointed to the darkness but didn't transcend it. He pushed his other hand through the opening and it was like being immersed in inky water.

Ace hated getting wet, it seemed all that he was doing nowadays was getting wet.

"Well let's hope this is the right way." He steeled his resolve and walked forward into the darkness, he could hear Chopper whimpering but the dog despite his reluctances followed right after him after only a short pause.

As they floated/walked through the blackness only the light from the ring guided their way. Ace could see something in the distance and in no time at all they found themselves in a small, sparse room. It seemed to be night time given the dimness of the room.

There was a table and a small cooking hearth as well as a small, child sized bed and not much else. Ace looked over everything quickly but determined to find someone he left the small cottage via its front door.

Everything felt foggy, like he was in a dream, or maybe a dream of a dream.

He lifted his hand and stared at the ring which was starting to vibrate, the light dimmed until it was only a tiny glow left, no more trail of light.

He walked outside and looked around. "I…know of this place." It was dark and the flowers weren't as plentiful as they once were but he knew of this place.

This was Marco's secret hideout that he'd shown Ace. That felt like a life-time ago but in reality hadn't been more then-

Ace's thought process was halted as he stared out onto a hillside in front of him.

Someone was standing there, a young boy whose back was turned. He was staring up into the sky and Ace followed his gaze and gasped.

Stars- falling stars, shooting stars. Whatever you would call them, they littered the skies above. Dozens of them shooting through the inky blackness of the night sky. They fell onto the ground, miles away from him. He could see and hear a tinkering bell and a small flash of light as they connected with the ground.

These were no ordinary falling stars.

Ace grimaced as the ring's vibrations got stronger, the band was tightening and disintegrating on his finger as well, cutting off circulation.

Another star fell, this one much closer and the light of it showcased the boy for a second.

Ace knew that spikey blond head anywhere, even if it was child sized.

"Marco…" He whispered and watched as Marco stood there and waited, just watching the stars fall and die. Ace didn't wait though, he tore off running full tilt towards Marco. He could feel the ground underneath his feet, it felt muddy and like quick sand it was trying to stop or delay him. "I'm in Marco's childhood…this is probably the night. The night that Marco's been running away from."

The mud was really sucking at him and he had to pause for a second to try to shake it off.

During that second though Marco caught one of the falling stars.

Ace watched mystified as Marco talked to the spark laying in his hands. He couldn't hear anything being said between them. Ace barely felt Chopper crash run the back of his legs, having been caught in some of the mud and only just now making it.

…and now Marco was swallowing the star.

Seriously. He went from talking to it to eating it whole.

He watched helpless as Marco bent in half as if in pain and coughed harshly. Then he gripped his own chest and slowly a fire burned out of it into his hands.

_Zoro_. The fallen star had been Zoro.

He knew what to do now. He knew how to save them, all of them.

The ring broke and Ace could feel the ground beneath his feet disappear. But he couldn't leave yet, not yet.

Not when he knew how to save them!

"Marco! Zoro!" Ace yelled out as he slowly hovered over the dark hole that had opened up underneath him. He saw them turn towards him, suspicion in their eyes but _they could see and hear him_ and that was all that mattered. "It's me! Ace! I know how to help you now! Find me! Find me in the future!" He tried to stay, to say more but the wind tunnel sucked in right in along with Chopper.

As Ace fell he fell through skies and land, galaxies and supernovas. He went through fire and water and void.

He knew he'd be having nightmares for a long time after this. Hopefully helping his friends out would suppress most of what he saw in this place of nothingness and everythiness.

It was Chopper that led him from that place back to the door. Ace could feel tears coursing once more down his face and he tried to brush them away this time. This wasn't the time to cry, not when he might already be too late.

Ace could see the doorway now and he walked right through it. Landing on his feet into the real world. It was a good feeling after being in that void, the ground felt solid and real.

Ace walked forward where he could see Marco waiting for him. A giant mass of feathers easily three times bigger then himself. He didn't bother to notice the door disappear behind him into nothingness, that wasn't important right now.

He stopped right in front of Marco and pushed back the feathers where his face should be. Marco's human face was still there although it was slowly converting into something else.

Ace didn't care- well he did but only because Marco's eyes seemed so deaden right now. It wasn't right and Ace prayed that he wasn't too late.

"I'm sorry, I made you wait all this time." Ace whispered and leaned forward and softly kissed Marco's unresponsive lips. It wasn't romantic or anything of the sort. It was an apologize and a soft declaration of love at the same time.

"Can you take us to Zoro please?"

Marco moved slowly but he stretched out, his neck grew out longer and his body grew thee more sizes. Ace hopped onto one of his feet and gripped tightly to his feathers. Chopper quickly got on as well as Marco stretched his wings out and took to the air.

It wasn't long before they spotted the small piece of the castle that the others were stranded on, it was still moving- abide really wobbly and slowly. It was still shedding debris all over the place.

Marco landed none too gently and fell unconscious to the ground. Ace had hopped on before then so he managed to stay upright. He wanted to run over and check on him but stilled himself. He had something else he needed to do and it was the only way he could help.

Ace walked over to Doffy who was sitting cross legged, he was frowning heavily and the lines of his face had deepened. Sanji had been sitting a little ways away with Veg, he rushed over to Marco in Ace's stead and pushed him until he was lying face up, as comfortably as he could.

"I need you to give it to me." Ace spoke softly to Doffy who shook his head firmly.

"NO it's mine." He pouted but Ace didn't have the patience to deal with this now. Not now.

"Marco needs it back. Please." Ace reached out and hugged the old man, he thought of just beating him up and taking it and maybe if he wasn't completely tired out he would have. As it was Ace decided to take the nicer way out.

He'd beat someone later if anyone mentioned it though.

"I know you think you need it or something but this isn't Rosinante's heart." Ace remembered the conversation they had and the name of the one person that Dolfamingo confessed to love. He knew it was kind of petty of him to bring that up but desperate times call for desperate measures.

It worked though. Doffy hesitated for another second before sighing long and hard. "Alright, you win. Take care of it." He gave Ace the warm and pulsing Zoro. The flames were almost diminished and Ace knew he had to hurry.

That didn't stop him from placing a kiss on Doffy's cheek in thanks. He still wanted to hit him for taking Zoro in the first place but if this all worked out he knew that he wouldn't hold any grudges.

He walked over and kneeled down next to Marco's still form.

"Zoro."

Zoro's face came out of the flame. "Ace I'm so tired."

"I know." Ace said. "If I give Marco back his heart what will happen to you."

"Who knows? But I think I'll be okay if it's you who's doing it. I mean- you dumped water on me and we survived that. I would say use your flames on me but that might make things worse."

"I can't use them anyway, I think you drained them pretty good earlier." Ace paused and closed his eyes. "It's so warm and fluttering like a bird."

"It's the heart of a child." Zoro said sadly. "He was so young…"

Ace drew Zoro and the heart close to his lips. "Please- once more, help Zoro live and help Marco take back his heart." He whispered before placing Zoro on Marco's chest and pushing downward.

Zoro went down with little resistance. Everyone watched with baited breath to see what happened next.

Flashing lights came from Marco's chest and something came fluttering out, a bright spark of light.

"I'm alive!" Zoro shouted with glee. "I'm free and I'm alive." He whizzed around for a second around them before flying off.

Marco took that moment where everyone's attention was on Zoro to cough and moan.

"He moved!" Sanji shouted and for a second everything felt like it would be okay.

Then- the rest of the platform they had been on collapsed to the ground…over yet another hillside.

"Ahh!" They all screamed out as they fell sideways down the ground. Ace leaned over Marco's still unconscious body and held Sanji close in his arms. They were sliding down the ground towards the bottom. It was by sheer luck that it was slanted ground instead of a sheer cliff fall like the one he'd fallen down earlier.

A large rock was suddenly in front of them, if they crashed into that they were all dead.

Ace tried to reach into himself once more for his fire but yet again it eluded him.

"Not now!" He groaned and watched in horror as the rock got closer, or in reality they got closer to the rock.

Veggiehead suddenly jumped out in front of them, his stick grinded into the ground in an effort to slow them down enough that they wouldn't crash, but the speed that they were going caused his stick to whittle down fast before breaking into half.

"VEG!" Ace called out and tried to pull him back towards them so he wouldn't fly off into the open air below.

Luckily they had slowed down enough so that the moment they hit the rock instead of crashing and burning they only received some bumps and bruises.

It also had the wonderful pleasure of them stopping their descent entirely.

"His pole snapped in half." Ace mumbled and sat up to see what he could do.

Veggiehead didn't respond and just laid there limp in his arms.

"Thank you, if you hadn't done that we would all be dead right now. We'll get you a new pole so just hold on there." Ace said and kissed Veg in apologize.

What he hadn't expected was for sparks to suddenly fly around the scarecrow or for it to leap away from him and transform into a good looking young man.

"Ah that curse. I know it well. A kiss from someone you love will break the curse, some would say it's true love's kiss." Doffy smirked as he stared at Ace's wide eyes and agape mouth.

The young man was around Ace's age, with blonde hair not unlike Marco's own. He was dressed smartly in a top hat and aristocratic clothing.

"My name is Sabo." He bowed to all of them. "Thank you Ace for breaking the curse placed on me." He looked sheepish then. "I'm the prince that has been missing from the neighborhood kingdom."

"Tru-true love's k-kiss?" Ace stuttered out and glared at Doffy's widening smirk.

"That's right." Sabo grinned widely and Ace had to admit that the man was strikingly handsome.

What was with it with all these hot men that were suddenly coming out of the woodwork as soon as he fell in love with someone else? It was a god damn conspire.

"If it wasn't for Ace I would probably have stayed a scarecrow for the rest of my life."

Ace listened as Doffy and Sabo conversed about the curse before a groan from Marco made Ace turn around and block out everything else around him.

Marco's eye lids fluttered before opening, it took a second for them to focus but they quickly zeroed onto Ace.

"Ace? What's going on?" Marco tried to sit up but winched. "Urgh, I feel awful. W-what's wrong with me? I feel like there's a weight on my chest."

"A heart's a heavy burden." Ace grinned down at him, tears gathering in eyes.

Marco smirked in response and finally looked over Ace properly. "Ace- Ace your curse-"

"Is broken, yes." Ace's grinned widened even more, if such a thing was possible.

"You're so beautiful and you have starlight in your hair." Marco marveled. "I like it."

"Really?" Ace pulled a lock of his hair in front of his eyes and saw that Marco was right, mixed in with his original pitch black hair were silver locks, they did resemble starlight. "Know what? So do I!" Ace threw himself down onto Marco in a full body hug.

He then pressed his lips to Marco's in a heated kiss, of which Marco returned with just as much enthusiasm.

A loud coughing from nearby cut the kiss short though. Doffy was smirking while clamping a hand over Sanji's eyes and Sabo…was glaring stormily at Marco.

"Looks like your true love is in love with somebody else." Doffy cooed with fake sadness.

"That's-" Sabo stopped himself for a second and took a deep breath to compose himself. "I should be headed home anyway to put a stop to this stupid war. Make no mistake though, I will return-" He glared at Marco's amused expression. "-and I will win Ace's heart. One thing I've learned in my years is that hearts can change and so can love."

Marco laughed and it sent a chain reaction of giggles which despite his mild-antagonism at Marco, Sabo couldn't help but join in with everyone else. After all his curse had been lifted and he had meet the love of his life, winning said heart of his love will just be another trial of his continuous life.

Law's eyebrows were pinched together, showing anyone else who might have been around that he had a major headache going on between his eyes. He was looking down onto the surface of a small pond, its refection was reflecting Marco and his family.

"It looks like everything turned out okay, although losing Chopper will always be a bitter blow." Law smirked to himself. "At least the little mutt will be happy."

"Ace looks happy."

Law's eyebrows pinched again. "Why are you still here? Didn't Garp drag your ass out of here earlier?!" Law glared at the younger boy who was sitting next to him on the ground with legs cross and chin held in his hands.

"Yea but I snuck away and came back." Luffy said, face pinched in a fake-innocent expression.

"Why?!" Law wailed and buried his head in his hands. He will forever regret kidnapping the young brat to leverage against Garp. The kid had imprinted on him like a baby duck or something similarly disgusting.

"Because I like you." Luffy stated simply and looked back at the spelled pond. His brother really did look happy standing next to the tall man with the pineapple shaped hair. They were cuddling together as they saw off that other blonde guy who had been a really cool scarecrow a few minutes ago. Why did he want to change into a human anyway? Scarecrows were much cooler!

There was also another blonde, although this one was a lot younger, Luffy could feel a small pang in his chest when he saw Ace fuss over the kid, much like how Ace once fussed over him. But that was okay because Luffy was a big boy now and almost an adult and Ace needed someone to fuss over, his new blonde family would help him with that.

There was also a creepy old man and for some reason whenever Luffy looked over at him he felt inexplicitly angry and wanted to hit something, most likely that old man.

The last member of Ace's group was a dog and Luffy pouted, Garp never let them have a dog growing up and now Ace had one. Unfair.

"Heeey Law? Can we get a dog too?" Luffy whined.

"What? No!" Law protested and signaled an attendant to alert the King that the war was over. It was high time in Law's option, this dumb war had cost many promising wizards and witches their lives and sanity.

"Why not!?" Law argued back.

"One: There is no we. You will leave once I call up Garp and have him haul your ass out of here for good. Two: that was originally my dog and I don't think I could get another one, maybe a bear or something." Law pondered the thought of getting a new pet, a bear did sound pretty good and if Luffy ever came back he could always sic the bear on him.

"A bear? Cool!" Stars filled Luffy's eyes as they stared at Law.

Law's eyebrows twitched. "Damn it. Just leave already. You've seen that your brother is fine, I will keep my promise of not harming them. Now please, please leave."

"…no."

"Argh!"

Ace and the others watched as Sabo faded off into the distance, Marco had enchanted a large stick that would help him get to his country faster and since Sabo was use to bouncing up and down now for transport he admitted that he was thankful for the assistance. Although he stated yet again that he would return and fight Marco for Ace's heart and love.

Marco had the nerve to laugh again and tighten his grip around Ace's waist. Now usually Ace would be feeling a bit offended at being treated like a piece of cake that the other was dangling in front of the other but he was in such a good mood he decided to save the ass burning for later.

"Hey look its Zoro!" Sanji pointed to the sky and sure enough, there was Zoro in his spark form hovering above them. Ace pulled away from Marco reached out. Zoro slowly floated down and as soon as he touched down turned back into his green fire form.

"You came back." Ace smiled and leaned backwards. His back thumping softly against Marco's chest, he ignored the small "Oof." That his actions inspired.

"I missed you guys and I think it's going to rain." Zoro said, shyness clear in his voice, unsure of his welcome. Marco chuckled and wrapped his arms around Ace's waist and rested his chin on his head, his taller frame fit easily against Ace.

"You are always welcome Zoro. You are as much a part of this family as everyone else is." Marco smiled gently down at the fire spirit that had been with him for years.

"I missed you as well." Ace leaned forward and gave Zoro a tiny, sweet kiss. Causing the fire demon to spark and melt in his hands.

Zoro's fire didn't burn him at all, maybe it was because Ace could feel his own fire underneath his skin. It was responsive now and Ace knew that if he so desired it he could recall it to leap out and cover his whole body.

Sanji laughed at Zoro's embarrassment and it sparked their usual verbal fight, although this time Sanji had to be held back by Doffy's hand on his collar as the young boy tried to make it physical. It looks like even though Zoro had return to his usual state of being, a fire with a face, he could still remember Zoro's more humanoid figure and figured that the fire demon had been holding back on him.

Well to be fair he wouldn't be wrong.

"Come on everyone." Marco spoke sternly, although the joy had never once left his voice or eyes since he'd woken up. "Time to go home."

"But the castle is in pieces now." Ace frowned and just sighed at Marco's mischief making smirk.

"You have a plan don't you?" Ace sighed again.

"When don't I?" Marco smirked, Ace did the only thing he could think of that would wipe that smirk from his face and since his normal action of punching it off was off the table he just kissed it off instead.

Days passed as the air ships were retreating to their home countries, soldiers instead of fighting other enemy soldiers were put on a relief system, dozens of small and large towns had been hit in the war and they needed all the help they could get in order to rebuild and heal.

Rumor had it that the Court Wizard himself ordered the decree after being pursued by a young adult who had refused to stop clinging to him until he'd given the order to help out with all the damages.

But that was just a rumor.

Far away from the Wastes and surrounding lands a large castle floated calmly on the open waters of the sea. Its shape resembled the castle it had once been except for a few details.

One- it was a ship now, not just a moving castle, two it also had a propeller on the back that could either propel them at great speeds along the waters or fly them up into the sky. Two- it had an outdoor garden now with a large patio for relaxing and sunning or playing tag amongst the grass with Chopper and Sanji.

Doffy was noted to always be relaxed on a nice recliner with a good book in hand, he'd mellowed greatly and even joined in on Sanji's teachings to give the young boy tips and revisions, he wasn't half-bad as a teacher either.

Ace lite his finger up and pointed at a smirking Marco. "Just because you think you're cute doesn't mean you can get away from this."

"I don't think I'm cute, I know I am."

Ace groaned in fake agony. "That was bad Marco." He couldn't help but chuckle helplessly though.

"It got you to laugh didn't it? Mission accomplished."

"Stop trying to derail me on this." Ace's finger burned brighter and Marco just let his own hand flop into the air lazily, his fingers turning into a soft blue flame. He couldn't seem to turn back into his bird form but he'd gained something else, a blue flame that didn't burn others but instead offered a warm comfort to all who touch it.

Ace may have touched it a lot, he wasn't ashamed to admit it. Although he may have blushed pretty bad when Sanji had asked that they keep the noise down or move to another part of the castle because he couldn't get a full night's rest with the screaming and creaking of springs.

Marco, the asshole, had just agreed to put up a noise cancelling spell.

"Nope, you can't derail me on this Marco, even with…that." Ace pulled back and let his own flames die down, when their flames touched…well…

They tried to only do that in their bedroom nowadays after a few embarrassing stunts.

"Ace, I know how much you want to do this but think about it fully before committing yourself to it."

"I want a jolly roger on this ship Marco and you can't stop me!" Ace hissed.

"With your art skills, you bet I can."

"My art skills are fine! The flag looks perfect!"

"Ace…darling, flame of my life. I will be honest with you…your drawing skills suck."

"…couch."

"Oh come on!"

The End

Thank you all so much for sticking with me on this! I had a fantastic time writing this and even when writer's block tried to knock on my door I cling onto this story like a tick! LOL

This was originally only going to be 25K, really. I didn't think I could stretch it longer, not with the original plan. It's 50K…dear lord. My biggest Big Bang Ever! Woot!

Thank you everyone who encouraged me to finish this, my wonderful artist who stuck with me to the bitter end. Tembrook is an awesome artist and I'm in awe at their skills.

I hope everyone enjoyed this and I would love to hear your thoughts, please review. Pretty please with a lovely cherry red Ace on top with whipped cream?


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